Nestled between the Indian Ocean and mountains, Madagascar's Sambirano Valley boasts a hot and humid climate, home to the country's highest point, Maromokotro volcano, surrounded by subhumid forests teeming with wildlife found nowhere else in the world. The region's fertile plains, dotted with rivers, benefit from floods during the rainy season, depositing highly fertile fluvial soil that creates ideal conditions for crops, including cacao. While the Sambirano Valley is known for its variety of subsistence, cash, and industrial crops such as coffee, vanilla, sugarcane, rice, peanuts, and cotton, it has gained renown as one of the world's premier cacao-growing regions. The area's terroirs and microclimates can vary, but consistently result in cacao with bright fruity flavours and high acid, ideal for producing non-bitter bean-to-bar chocolates with minimal or no use of sugar.