We are on the sailing ship “Tres Hombres”, reminiscent of times long past. The air is salty, the clothes are soaked, the sailors have full beards, and the waves burst against the railing. Rum and cacao are being transported.

What seems like the diaries of famous seafarers like Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus, or James Cook is actually the daily life on the Tres Hombres, one of only a few merchant sailing ships on the world’s oceans. Daniel Haller, a retired journalist, was a ship’s boy on one of the voyages. The excerpts from his blog make it quite clear: life on the open sea is not as romantic as you might think! In fact, it is very hard work.

But what do laflor and a wooden sailing ship have in common?

Well, it’s really simple: we have decided that we want the Colombian cacao “Rio Sinu” to reach us by sailing ship.

Instead of transporting the goods via container ship, we have thrown old ways of thinking overboard and decided to bring the “Rio Sinu” cacao to Europe via the Atlantic Ocean in a carbon-neutral way.

As you may know, 90 percent of the world’s traded goods are transported by sea. Container ships, which use heavy oil for international shipping, are known as climate polluters. Fairtransport GmbH proves that it is also possible to do things in an environmentally friendly way with the “Tres Hombres”, which only uses wind power to move around.

In 2007, Fairtransport was founded through the purchase of a ramshackle sailing ship, the “Tres Hombres”. It was restored and refurbished with the active help of many volunteers. The propulsion: two masts and 280 square meters of canvas. The “Tres Hombres” has been sailing across the Atlantic for ten years now, bringing wine and olive oil to one side of the ocean and cacao beans, coffee and rum to the other. All products that are transported by the “Tres Hombres” have one thing in common: they are eco-friendly and fair. In 2020, our cacao from Colombia was on board as well.

The “Tres Hombres” is one of the first zero-emissions freighters, is considered a pioneer for wind-powered cargo ships, and has started a new movement in the field of fair transport. An increasing number of these alternative solutions are expected to emerge in the future. We at laflor are proud to be part of this.

You can find another exciting article about the “Tres Hombres” here.