We are a family owned company who has been involved in the cocoa beans trade for more than 50 years.
Our business is located in the city of Quevedo, in the Ecuadorean province of ‘Los Rios’. This city is one of the most important agricultural centres in Ecuador for its fertile land and tropical wet climate, but above all is the area with the highest production of the world renown ‘Cacao Nacional’ or also named as “Cacao Arriba”
Plant it
Our story started 50 years ago, when our grandfather Don Pedro Martinetti founded ‘La Casa del Cacao’ in Quevedo. It started as an agricultural merchant house. It was customary for the farmers to take their harvest of cocoa beans to be gathered and transported to the city, where it was sold to the Big cocoa bean’s exporter companies. But the extremely good relationships that were developed with the farmers through trust and support helped ‘La Casa del Cacao’ to grow to the point where it was possible to export directly to buyers in Europe.
Build it
Pedro Martinetti Junior followed in his dad’s footsteps by setting up his own cocoa trade business which now has his name “Exportadora Pedro Martinetti” took a different approach by sourcing only the best quality cocoa beans. The company pioneered in the export of high quality and certified cocoa beans, thanks to a close relation with local farmers who kept harvesting organic “Arriba” cocoa trees instead of moving to other varieties of cocoa. The company soon became one of the first exporters of certified organic cocoa beans in Ecuador offering Rainforest Alliance as well, UTZ and Fairtrade certified cocoa beans
Grow it
The company has now expanded to a third generation and with it, new business models. Last year we opened our own processing plant to offer cocoa products as cocoa nibs, cocoa liquor and chocolates under the ‘Martinetti’ brand, made with 100% Arriba cocoa beans.
What makes us different
Our location allows us to work exclusively with cocoa of the national variety called "Arriba" or "Fino de Aroma" This variety of cocoa beans is emblematic of Ecuador and the name was obtained when the Europeans enquiring for the origins of the exceptional flavour were told that the cocoa beans came from “Río Arriba” which means “Up in the river” or simply as “Arriba”. At that time, the cocoa beans were transported from the area of the provinces of Los Rios and Manabí to Guayaquil by the Babahoyo river to the Guayas river and the exported mostly to Europe.
National cocoa plantations have a low production yield in addition to being more susceptible to diseases. But our mission is to work closely with farmers, and to encourage them to preserve the real national cocoa “fino de aroma” by providing assistance on the production process, and incentives to ensure all our cocoa beans have the flavour and aroma required.
Martinetti in the world
Over the years The Martinetti family has established very strong working relationships with many companies around the world. As the business and company has evolved and extended, so have our clients. We are honoured to have served many small chcoolatiers all over the world, as well as many multinational companies. Over the years we are proud and appreciative to have worked with companies such as Pierre Marcolini (BEL), Coppeneur (ALE), Ferrero (ITA), among others.