Canada, Colombia, cocaine and cacay. It’s an odd mix of ingredients that’s changing lives in the Amazon rainforest thanks to an entrepreneurial Canadian diplomat.
Corry Van Gaal was posted to Colombia in 2015. Her portfolio included helping local farmers find alternative crops to Coca – the plant used to produce cocaine.
“I’m working with women who want to change. They don’t want to be involved in illegal activity anymore” says Van Gaal. “They want a better life for their families and themselves and a safe life.”
Van Gaal believed in these farmers so much, she invested her own money to create a business called MaMo Botanics.
It uses the oil from Cacay tree nuts to produce an all-natural facial oil. Van Gaal pays the farmers of Putuamyo , Colombia, near the Ecuador border, to harvest the nuts from their own Cacay trees.
A Colombian factory extracts the vitamin rich natural Cacay oils, then it’s packaged up in Colombia and sold under the name Ma Mo Facial Oil.
“So when I started looking at some of the initial studies on the Cacay nut I was blown away by it’s vitamin content,” says Van Gaal.
Local farmer Elva Montenegro says, “I think this project would be an example that in Putumayo we can make a lving not only with Coca.”
To Guarantee long term sustainability, Van Gaal supplies the farmers with Cacay tree seedlings for them to plant. They’ll start bearing fruit in 3 to 5 years.
The facial oil is now being sold in South American’s largest Hotel spa, on line at mamobotanics.com and here in Ottawa at Rainbow Foods and Herb and Spice.
