Goodness, gracious, Ghana!

Cocoa is the essential ingredient in chocolate and transforming cocoa beans into chocolate is an arduous process. I run a chocolate and patisserie school, so I am always intrigued to find out more about cocoa and its production.

Thanks to F. Mayer Imports and Callebaut Australia, I had the opportunity to travel to Ghana and speak to the farmers themselves to discover how cocoa beans are grown, processed, fermented and dried before we see the final product as chocolate.

With the global appetite for chocolate at an all-time high, the volume of cocoa bean production in Ghana is continually increasing. Ghana is the second biggest global producer of cocoa, with its beans ranked among the best in the world. This premium quality is maintained due to the stringent quality control exercised by the Ghanaian government.

Cocobod is a Ghanaian government controlled institution that regulates the sector and controls the pricing of cocoa beans. Due to the significant decline in global cocoa prices, Cocobod has set the price of the commodity to ensure farmers are paid a guaranteed minimum price for their cocoa beans. This reduces the farmers’ vulnerability to the volatile cocoa bean market.

As the backbone of the Ghanaian economy and Ghana’s chief agricultural export, the cocoa industry is the livelihood of many communities, employing approximately 800,000 farming families. The ballooning global demand for chocolate also brings with it a need to protect both cocoa and the farmers. Barry Callebaut set up the Horizon program to help shape a sustainable future for cocoa and chocolate. Its mission is to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their communities through the promotion of sustainable farming, improved productivity and community development. The program aims to become carbon and forest positive and have 100 per cent sustainable ingredients in all their products. We visited several farmers and plantations that have availed of the Horizon program and we were overwhelmed by the positive results. We investigated the farms, fertiliser, canopy and sunlight exposure. One farmer we met went from having three cocoa pods on one tree to 300 over 12 months.

The harvest season in Ghana runs from October to March. It takes six months from the flower being pollinated to grow a full cocoa pod. Once the pods are picked, the beans are removed and fermented for six days. The beans are then dried out in a location close to the farmer’s house and in the local villages, away from the farm, so if it rains during the day, the beans can be quickly covered. The drying process can take up to 14 days and is critical to the final flavour of the cocoa beans. Most farmers grow a hybrid of cocoa to achieve a higher yield. This means it can take two years to bear fruit after a new tree is planted, a significant decrease from the original seven years they would usually have to wait.

It’s the world’s favourite sweet treat but in order for it to survive, we must explore new ways of achieving sustainable chocolate. Barry Callebaut is doing just that. Having seen the results of their work in person, it is amazing how they are improving processes and quality for the good of every chocolate manufacturer, not just Callebaut.