Chocolate festival a success

Displaying how the cocoa fruit gets turned into cocoa powder and chocolate was part of the festival in Honiara on Sunday 26 March 2023 at the Pacific Crown Hotel. Three businesses, Kokonut Pacific Solomon Islands (KPSI), Amazing Grace and Cathliro were the participating groups at the Festival. The cocoa industry is a significant crop for the Solomon Islands’ economy. There are more than 24,000 smallholders comprising of around 133,000 family members. Cocoa growers are concentrated mainly in Guadalcanal, Malaita and Makira provinces but family cocoa blocks can be found in every province in the country. Cocoa is seen as a cash crop, with many families harvesting when they need money for important family events or for school fees. Cocoa farmers rarely receive the market price for cocoa, and this is because exporters and buyers need to deduct their costs from this value. For example if the market price for cocoa is USD2,000 per tonne, the buyer will offer the exporter the market price, minus their shipping costs (and other costs). So the buyer may offer the exporter $1,950 per tonne. The exporter also has business costs, it may cost them $100 per tonne to buy the beans from the farmers, store the beans, pay their staff etc. Exporters would then offer farmers $1,950 – 100 = $1850 per metric tonne. The price is set per metric tonne (abbreviated to mt), in countries where there is low production (such as the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, price is set for farmer per kilo.) Therefore if the exporter knows that their buying price is $1850/mt, they would offer farmers USD1.85/kg. With the inception of value adding activities to cocoa beans, local businesses are maximizing their money from cocoa. The chocolate festival was seen as an opportunity for these businesses to showcase their products and demonstrate what farmers can do with their cocoa beans or why it is important that farmers sell premium quality beans. “It is quite challenging for our chocolates in the market because most Solomon Islanders are used to overseas chocolate and its taste. But for us, we are slowly getting customers for our products’, says Rachel Bennett who works as Production Manager for Cathliro. The chocolate festival also includes a competition where participants use only local cocoa or chocolate products. The competition attracted nine participants.