Mexico | Fair value chains
Chasseurs de Saveurs supports Mexican farmers with sustainable agriculture and more secure livelihoods
Many smallholder farmers in Mexico rely on a single crop and one harvest season. After the harvest, they often face buyers offering low prices, and during the off-season, they must look for other work to make ends meet. For vanilla farmers, the situation is even more challenging: vanilla is a valuable yet fragile crop, the market is dominated by Madagascar, and cultivation requires intensive manual labor while being highly vulnerable to extreme weather. Access to financing is also difficult, as farmers typically lack collateral or verifiable profit records.
An alternative: Edible forests
Chasseurs de Saveurs—loosely translated as “Flavor Hunters”—offers farmers a sustainable alternative. The organization helps them establish edible forests, agroecological systems where vanilla, allspice, honey, coffee, and other crops are grown together. This approach promotes biodiversity and provides both food and income year-round. Farmers receive training, assistance with organic certification, and support for sustainable farming practices.
Chasseurs de Saveurs purchases these products at fair prices, processes them in-house, and sells them through established buyers in Europe and the Middle East. This enables farmers to earn more than they would through individual sales. Thanks to allspice as a second cash crop, their income is also better diversified. Today, more than 400 farmers from nine cooperatives work with Chasseurs. Their premium-quality vanilla is highly sought after by Michelin-starred restaurants in Mexico and beyond.
The Role of Rabo Foundation
Rabo Foundation was the first to finance Chasseurs de Saveurs at a time when other parties saw no potential. This support allowed the organization to start trading vanilla and later expand into allspice and honey. The Foundation provides working capital on favorable terms and offers technical assistance, including accounting and reporting support. It also helped develop honey production. These efforts contribute to a fairer supply chain and a stronger business model for both farmers and Chasseurs.
A Social and Ecological Model
Chasseurs de Saveurs is a Mexican enterprise with a strong social mission. Through its Edible Forest model—Bosques Comestibles—and its partnership with the Asociación Mexicana de Bosques Comestibles (AMEBOSCO), the organization promotes sustainable agriculture, reforestation, and fair trade. To date, more than 200 hectares of forest have been restored, and Chasseurs works with 500 families across three Mexican states.
