The prestige of TT’s award-winning cocoa cannot be denied, but with a decline in production over the years caused by various issues such as labour shortages, the industry's future remains uncertain for those whose lives and livelihoods depend on it.

Business Day spoke to three business owners who were featured at the cocoa expo held by the Cocoa Research Centre (CRC) on November 29.

They spoke about their hopes and challenges and gave keen insight into the industry from their different perspectives.

Noreen Nunez is a European-trained luxury-chocolate maker and owner of Voulez Chocolat. Having worked as a chocolate-maker in both the US and UK, she has brought her expertise back to her homeland, where she produces a range of luxury chocolate products made from 100 per cent local cocoa.

Kerry Ann Deo is a self-starting entrepreneur and owner of Chawklit, a brand that grew from a cupcake business she started after high school. Having studied human nutrition and dietetics as well as food science and technology, Deo now produces chocolate bars and drinking chocolate in a variety of flavour combinations.

Jabari Lynch is the owner of Lynch’s Nuts and Stuff, a family business passed onto him by his parents, who taught him the various aspects of the industry from agro-processing to baking. Now ten years into the business, he makes products that feature a mixture of locally sourced nuts fruits and chocolate in various blends of sweet and savoury flavours.

Material sourcing

Each of these business owners sources their raw materials from local farmers, suppliers and through the CRC. While careful preparation for the busy holiday season has ensured an adequate stock of most raw materials, issues in the supply chain have still had their effect.

Deo says this year has been the first time she has experienced notable disruptions in sourcing cocoa butter. Her main supplier is experiencing a significant cocoa shortage owing to deforestation near his farm in the east-coast village of Plum Mitan.

“The lumber industry is pretty vibrant, and so he told me that because a lot of the trees are being cut down, a lot of animals are losing their habitats including monkeys. Now, because they have nowhere to go and no food, they come to the cocoa fields to eat the cocoa.”

The effects of deforestation, in addition to the typical issue of diseases affecting the crop, have caused such a drastic drop in the farmer's supply of coca that he cannot meet the demand for cocoa butter. This leaves Deo scrambling to find an alternative supplier to fulfil the increasing number of orders that come closer to the Christmas season, and even considering processing her own cocoa butter.

But with the volume of cocoa, the amount of space and the cost of the equipment needed for cocoa-butter processing, the option is hardly feasible.

While Nunez has sourced a sufficient amount of cocoa butter to last her well into the next year, she says issues in sourcing it are not uncommon.

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