The Authentic Marketing Potential for Venezuelan Cocoa
01 Mar 2016 | Tisano
This is Rob Wires at the Euroan in Paris, and I'm here with Patrick Pineda from the Venezuelan Cocoa Alliance, and the group is here to promote the benefits of Venezuelan cocoa.
What, what is it that's That makes Venezuelan cocoa special, particularly now in terms of this trend towards kind of origin products.
I think today we're seeing a big push towards companies looking for origins specific cocoa.
Venezuela has traditionally been known as an aroma fine flavored country, and we've had origin region specific cocoa within countries.
So it's not just Venezuelan cocoa, it's Venezuelan Rio Carribe, Venezuelan Coronero, Venezuelansur delago, which chocolate.
Have always looked for as a bean to blend in, to round off flavors, to give fruity flavors.
But today with this push for origin specific, we want to promote together with cocoa farmers, with exporters, with chocolate makers to focus in terroir-spec zones, and I think that's a unique opportunity Venezuela has.
We have a very wide range of genetic material and specialized terroirs that enhance.
And definitely change the flavor profile.
How much cocoa is processed in Venezuela and what's kind of the outlook in that regard?
So also, because Venezuela has a fine flavor cocoa, we're somewhat of a smaller producer considering our neighbors, but we do produce 17,000 tons a year, of which 90%, according to the eco is fine flavored cocoa.
So that's why the push is quality, not quantity, as certain countries to meet global demand of chocolate started planting.
Hybrids and higher yielding genetic varietals that may not have that flavor profile.
Venezuela has a lot of these traditional ancestral genetics, so we want to highlight and focus these rare genetic varietals that give flavor and not necessarily increase yield with these bulk cocoas.
Where are you seeing an increase in demand both in terms of countries and in terms of product applications?
So traditionally our biggest export market for Venezuelan cocoa has been Japan.
Obviously, European chocolate makers have been known as, fine, chocolate and fine flavor, chocolate companies.
So that has also been a historic market.
Over the last few years, there's been a lot of growth in the US market.
There's a big boom in, bean to bar, which is chocolate makers that work from the chocolate, bean roast, grind, and make their own chocolates.
So these are people that are looking for specialized ingredients, specialized flavors, and other applications of cocoa beans and not just chocolate making.
You find it in pharmaceutical.
Chemicals, you find it in cosmetics, but for the fine flavor cocoa, definitely chocolate is one key zone.
There is an interesting, element and a lot of research going into the antioxidant, the polyphenol content of cocoa, and what they have found is the finer flavor cocoas, what traditionally was known as the Criollo cocoas, have higher, halohono, levels in it.
OK.
And finally, what, what's your kind of aim here at Europan?
Are you looking to boost your, export to European markets, or are there The reasons behind your high presence here, Venezuela wanted to have a unified presence at Europan, and so together with the Banco de Exterior, our foreign trade bank, and with private companies together with Sans Chocolat, we want to have a unified voice to let people know Venezuela is still a country that is open to trade, that has great quality cocoa, and working together, the private enterprise and the government to get Venezuela's name out there to anybody interested in trying our cocoa.
Patrick, thank you very much.
Thank you.
