"New origins", the must of world cocoa
Audio 01:50
January 2021, Soubré, Ivory Coast, collection of cocoa.
(Illustrative photo) REUTERS - LUC GNAGO
By: Marie-Pierre Olphand Follow
5 mins
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Togo, and even in the Philippines, traders of a new kind are joining forces with chocolate makers to find exceptional beans and set up responsible sectors that pay planters better.
Zoom, on this Easter Monday, on the 5% of the cocoa market that escapes the big manufacturers.
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This is called a niche market.
But it supports thousands of planters around the world, and under conditions much better than those imposed on cocoa farmers by world prices.
On average, "
the beans are bought 25% but often 50 or sometimes 100% more expensive for the farmers
", confides Katrien Delaet, importer and founder of the company Silva cacao, based in Antwerp.
The price is therefore not that of the international market.
"
It is set with the producer, to help him grow high-end beans which will then sell for much more than conventional cocoa
", explains the young Belgian agronomist who defines herself as a "cocoa sourceuse".
Where a traditional trader buys an origin to deliver a butter manufacturer, who transforms the beans and resells a semi-finished product, these fine cocoa importers buy the beans directly from the growers or small cooperatives, and follow the whole chain to the artisan chocolatier.
For maximum traceability.
The production of fine cocoa exceeds demand
While a trader sells between 50,000 and 300,000 tonnes per year, an importer of exceptional beans thinks in a 12-tonne container and brews volumes a hundred times less.
Whether for the Philippines origin last year, or that of Congo Ituri produced this year, Silva cacao even started with a single container.
The potential of production in what one might call “haute-couture cocoa” is today greater than demand.
"
But with the vogue for
'bean to bar'
: from
bean to bar
, chocolate makers could change the game
," said Sylvie Guillaume, member of the Club des Croqueurs de Chocolat.
In France, there are a little more than thirty to choose their raw material and the trend should only increase.
It is already much more developed in Switzerland and Germany.
Local sectors, far from known cocoa tree trails
If the world production is known today, and listed, iconoclastic and atypical initiatives regularly emerge, whether in Tahiti yesterday or tomorrow in Togo.
The task of those who serve as scouts to identify these new origins is often done far from the large cocoa growing regions already identified.
“
In Côte d'Ivoire, for example,”
explains a craftsman who is a member of the Club des Chocolatiers Engagés, “
we are aware that we must not disturb the local economic circuits too much.
Many intermediaries live in the sector and also support their families.
This
must also be respected.
"
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