At the beginning of the year we wrote " At NCGSER we hope to turn normal industry practice on its head by training local people in artesian chocolate making, using ingredients and local labour and creating a whole value chain around this new enterprise. By providing advice and technical assistance we will reverse the normal trend, which is to add all the value in North America, Australia, Europe and the Far East giving only the value of the commodity to the cocoa growing economy. Through setting up local chocolate academies and workshops under our Chocolate Programme (>FAIRTRADE), in cocoa producing areas we will encourage the export of high quality artesian chocolates ( sometimes with a Ghanaian flavour) and increase the income of cacao growers and chocolatiers."
World map of chocolate - both artisan and large scale - producing areas. Africa produces more than 70% of the world's cacao.
EATT is helping Asantewaa diversify her income and put her cocoa business on a sound financial footing. We are working together on food hygiene,good chocolate production environment, COSHH(Control of substances hazardous to health), the composition and labelling of chocolate and chocolate related products,marketing and guidance on importing and exporting the cocoa products. We are having fun developing, in small batches an exciting range of chocolate and cocoa products, in the UK and Ghana.With the new skill set Asantewaa acquires she will be able to make cocoa products,organise chocolate making classes and retail equipment for the manufacture of confectionery,cocoa or chocolate to increase her income.If we are going to avert the shortage of cocoa in the next decade we need to assist cacao growers find value and ownership within their industry. We believe ALL PEOPLE are created equal; however, we recognized years ago that cacao growers children would have greater opportunities available to them as chocolate makers, than as mere cocoa producers.Now this is more than fair trade.
ASANTEWAA'S CACAO - A WORK IN PROGRESS
http://asantewaachocolate.weebly.com/
ASANTEWAA'S CACAO - A WORK IN PROGRESS
http://asantewaachocolate.weebly.com/