Kate began her adventures in cocoa as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic where she worked with a cooperative of organic cocoa farmers. With her house right next door to the processing facility of the coop, she literally lived and breathed cocoa. During her time in the DR she was lucky enough to learn how to ship cocoa beans by air, container freight and even by sailboat!
She has been working with Ecom since 2011, where she set up the Ecuador cocoa sourcing operation Agroarriba S.A. applying the skills learned on a small scale in the DR, especially the importance of the direct farmer relationship. Agroarriba buys direct from farmers as well as provides cutting edge technology and technical assistance to help improve yields and farmer livelihoods.