Co-Impact Sourcing® and the doTERRA Healing Hands Foundation™ in Guatemala

Guatemala was chosen as the Co-Impact Sourcing location for doTERRA’s Cardamom essential oil because the environment in Alta Verapaz is particularly conducive to the Cardamom plant. The hot, humid, and rainy weather, paired with the nutrient-rich clay soil, produces the perfect balance of supportive chemical components for the Cardamom plant and eventually essential oil.

Only one percent of the world’s Cardamom plants are distilled for essential oil, while the rest are harvested and sold at spice markets. The market for Cardamom, however, has historically been rather unstable in Alta Verapaz. Because the market is so saturated with middlemen, farmers are forced to sell their Cardamom to middlemen at lower prices, and then the middlemen resell the Cardamom at higher prices. This exchange leaves the farmers in a tight economical spot as they try to produce quality Cardamom and make a profit on their crops.

By partnering with doTERRA in a Co-Impact Sourcing program, Cardamom growers in Guatemala receive several benefits. First, members of the local communities are provided with sustainable jobs for which they are offered higher pay, and are provided with more effective methods of growing their Cardamom plants.

Emily Wright, doTERRA Founding Executive, Sales & Marketing, says of the Co-Impact Sourcing initiative in Guatemala, “I am so excited for what the future holds as our Co-Impact Sourcing initiatives begin to bless the lives of these humble, hard-working people. Sustainable jobs are being created, education and health care are more readily available, and a new perspective on the quality of life is given. We are committed to lifting up this community of Cardamom harvesters and many others.”