Page 17 - IB June 2017

Trade
‘ relationship with
Getting a

the farmer is ...
most important.
I need to know
where the cocoa
came from so I
can tell that story
...

Vanuatu’s cocoa has impressed chocolate producers from around the world. Left: Moli Lui on ‘
aaaa his farm on Malo
Island.
Top, botttom: - New Zealand chocolate producer Karl Hogarth
Chocolate
producers inspect D’Alesandre said the trade visit pre-
the farms and
meet the farmers sented many opportunities.
“It’s exciting because it seems like
Photos: Samantha there’s a great opportunity to get really
Rina/ PHAMA
high quality cocoa in Vanuatu and pay
premium prices.
“That could help with the Vanuatu mar-
ket but also bring in new flavour to the
craft chocolate industry,” he said.
While the logistics of transporting cocoa
Vanuatu’s cocoa has impressed chocolate producers from around the world. from a Pacific Island country to the USA is
aaaa
a concern, D’Alesandre said logistics were
a major issue everywhere. “I don’t worry
about it too much because it’s always
going to be expensive. It’s never cheap
to get cocoa,” he said.
Bours said the trade visit was an oppor-
beans. It has also funded training for lab be easy for them to do that. Without just tunity to meet as many people as possible
officers to improve their capacity to test the giving them lots of money for their cocoa, in the Vanuatu cocoa industry.
quality of cocoa samples for exports,” she how can we help to improve their process- “It gave us some good ideas of what
said. She said the trade visit would also ing? I can see the PHAMA Program will al- the possibilities are and where to source
give way to other export opportunities and low us access to do that: to stay connected from. Also, we met several exporters,
better prices for quality sun-dried beans. to the farmers or village, help them with consolidators and freight companies and
For Karl Hogarth, coming to Vanuatu tools and equipment,” he said. it was an opportunity to meet people and
has been an eye-opening experience. It Channells and Monroe said they were make our own decisions,” he said.
was his first visit to a cocoa farm which grateful for the opportunity to learn about The trade team also visited Metenesel
also allowed him his first taste of wet or the difficulties of growing and producing Estate in Malekula which houses cocoa
unprocessed cocoa beans. cocoa in Vanuatu.“We can see the chal- farms spanning across 500 hectares of
“Seeing the way cocoa is grown, har- lenges in drying and the other challenge land.
vested, traded and delivered - the whole is the logistics. We have a lot of apprecia- Estate manager Aisen Samuel wel-
chain is a unique experience,” he said. tion for the training and understand that comed the trade visit to the farm he has
Hogarth said visiting the farmers was it can help farmers like Moli Lui improve been working on for over 30 years.
the highlight of the visit. quality. We thought the beans were good, “We’re quite isolated and in a rural
“Getting a relationship with the farmer some were not as dried as they should be area so we usually don’t have the chance
is the most important thing. I sell my so we’re also giving the farmer advice on to meet people from the outside or the
chocolates with a story … so I need to how to dry it a bit more. The biggest issue market. This visit is an opportunity to
know the story of where the cocoa came is getting the cocoa beans to us; at what learn new techniques that can assist us to
from so I can tell that story which will cost and what’s viable,” said Channells. improve the quality of our cocoa,” he said.
engage my customer so they can buy the “Because we’re small, we do not buy The estate produces an average of 200
chocolate. The closer I can get to the people more than 3 tonnes in a row and the tonnes of cocoa beans per year and em-
producing the cocoa, the better,” he said. farmers here probably don’t produce more ploys 12 permanent employees and 281
He is also keen to support farmers in than 500kg each time and that suits us contract labourers who are given cocoa
producing good quality cocoa. fine. I can see a lot of potential here in the tree plots to work on and look after at
“What we can do as cocoa buyers is sense that there’s a lot of good ingredients. their own cost.
to help the farmers when we start a re- There’s really good ginger and vanilla,
lationship with them. We need to have all those things that we can add to the n Continued overleaf
consistent supply and it might not always chocolate,” said Monroe.

Islands Business, May 2017 17