AIV Leads First Mapping of Copoazú Production in Peru
Wednesday, 14 October 2026
By Paula Perrelli dos Anjos
At a meeting of the Copoazú Roundtable, in Madre de Dios (south-eastern Peru), producers’ organisations, companies and government representatives sat down with the Amazonia Impact Ventures (AIV) technical team to hear about a project aiming to give Peru something it has never had, a proper diagnosis of how much copoazú actually grows there, on how much land, and what stands in the way of farmers who want to grow more.
Copoazú (Theobroma grandiflorum, known as cupuaçu in Brazil) is a relative of cacao, sometimes nicknamed “white cacao”. It’s usually grown in agroforestry systems, alongside other trees, and each tree can produce up to 30 fruits a season. The pulp goes into juices and desserts, and the seeds are pressed into a butter increasingly used in skincare.
Funded by the UK PACT (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions) Amazon Regional Fund, the mapping is one of the first steps in “Catalysing the Bioeconomy”, the programme AIV is leading for UK PACT in Peru. It will gather the strategic information needed to link producers to export markets and to show what the sector needs. The data is also meant to stay in Peru, so producer associations, local offtakers, regional authorities and future investors can use it and make better decisions.
María Pía Díaz, a forestry engineer who joined AIV as the programme’s consultant on the copoazú value chain, explained that the roundtable hadn’t been active recently, and that members were cautious when they were invited to hear about the new project. The mapping is meant to be a first step towards strengthening the copoazú value chain in the region.
“Coordination among producers is still limited,” she said, reflecting on the roundtable. “As soon as they find another crop with stronger market demand or quicker returns, many producers migrate to it. Pineapple, for example, is a large monocrop. It doesn’t grow the way copoazú does inside an agroforestry system, and it isn’t sustainable for the forest.”
AIV Investment Officer Nelson Torres, who also attended, said some organisations in the region preferred to focus on crops already doing well there, such as cacao and pineapple. “Nobody knows how much copoazú there is. That’s the reason why the mapping is needed to inform future investments,” he said.
Disease adds to the case for caution. Moniliasis, or frosty pod rot, a fungal infection that rots the fruit before it ripens, has hit harvests harder over the past two years. Díaz said some producers link the rise to soil moisture and canopy cover, though this hasn’t been scientifically confirmed.
Peru’s copoazú production is still incipient, according to the Agro Perú Informa. There is no specific tariff code for the fruit, so exports are often recorded under “other fruits” or “cacao preparations”, which makes them hard to track. Patchy transport links still push up costs, though, and there’s no clear standard yet for handling the fruit after harvest.
Buyers do exist. Peruvian company Candela sells copoazú butter to the Brazilian cosmetics company Natura, and the cooperative COOPSSUR has taken certified organic Copoazú to overseas buyers. In the UK, the cosmetics retailer Lush also buys copoazú butter from Peru, a sign that demand isn’t the problem.
According to Aldo Soto, AIV’s Co-founder and Managing Director, the next step is to strengthen the value chain through technical assistance at community level for local organisations. The mapping data will then feed a business case that could bring more Madre de Dios producers into the market for specialty fruits and natural cosmetic ingredients, giving farmers a long-term income source and investors evidence that the local bioeconomy is investable.
About Amazonia Impact Ventures
Headquartered in the UK, Amazonia Impact Ventures (AIV) is an impact-first investment manager that addresses critical challenges in the Amazon rainforest. By providing impact-linked finance, it supports smallholder farmers, indigenous communities, women-led cooperatives and mission-driven companies, fostering a thriving forest-based bioeconomy. AIV works on the whole value chain of forest products, promoting sustainability and equity while connecting ethical buyers with local producers. Since 2020, AIV has invested more than USD15m, benefiting more than 6,000 smallholder farmers, being 36% women and 32% Indigenous peoples.
About UK PACT
UK PACT (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions) is a programme under the UK’s International Climate Finance (ICF) portfolio, jointly governed and funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). UK PACT funds projects that help partner countries deliver the emissions targets set out in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), combining longer-term capacity-building with the rapid deployment of expertise, working through local partners to support lasting change in energy, nature and finance. In Peru, UK PACT invests in the Amazon's low-carbon future.
#AmazonBioeconomy #sustainablevaluechains #PeruvianAmazon #UKPACT #Copoazu #ImpactInvesting #ClimateFinance
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