Traceability of cocoa beans: tracing chocolate throughout the supply chain

Traceability of cocoa beans: tracing chocolate throughout the supply chain

2023-11-06

Taiwan loves chocolate. But with 80% of Taiwan’s chocolate made from imported beans, how can manufacturers be sure the cocoa they import is produced ethically and safely? Traceability of beans is a growing movement, leading companies to trace their beans throughout the supply chain, right back to the farms they’re grown at. So what does it mean if you buy chocolate that claims to be in a source tracing scheme? FTV reporter Yeh Wei-hsiang visited a cocoa farm in Vietnam, to meet one Mr. Hung, who grows cocoa for Taiwanese manufacturers, and told us what the scheme means for him.

A farmer in a polo shirt uses a long hoe he made himself.

Mr. Hung is a cocoa farmer who lives in Ben Tre Province, Vietnam. His daily routine involves getting ripe bean pods down and into the basket. It may seem simple, but our reporter discovered it’s not as easy as Mr. Hung makes it look.

Climate change and global inflation have affected Vietnam’s cocoa production, leading to a shortage of more than 180,000 tons. Natural pests are an issue throughout the process of planting, cultivating and harvesting the beans. But cocoa farmers are also at risk of exploitation by global conglomerates. That’s one of the reasons this cocoa source tracing scheme was born.

Mr. Hung
Cocoa farmer, Ben Tre, Vietnam
I harvest about 15 tons a year on average. We can sell that for about US$7,000. It costs a lot to care for the cocoa trees. But I can manage it by myself. If I grew rambutan, half of my money would be spent on hiring workers.

Mr. Hung makes NT$140,000 a year just through cocoa farming. As part of the scheme, he gets an extra payment of NT$4 for each kilogram of cocoa beans, which is equivalent to another month or two of income. Meanwhile, his cocoa trees’ lifespans are extended and his business is sustainable.

Gricha Safarian
Baking ingredients industry
So, the benefits of our program to the farmer: First of all, we pay a premium for the quality of the beans they supply to us. Secondly, we pay what we call – we invented what we call the “chocolate premium,” which is an additional payment to the farmer.

Open up the pod and taste the raw bean, and it’s a little like mangosteen. Within six hours, the freshly harvested wet beans are sent to a harvesting center just for the tracing scheme.

Their sugar content is tested, they ferment and dry in the sun. Then they’re sent on to further locations for processing. In the end, these beans will become the chocolate that so many of us can’t live without.

Yeh Wei-hsiang
FTV reporter
Taiwanese companies have joined this cocoa source tracing scheme, to prevent the exploitation of cocoa farmers, and to ensure food safety standards. And that’s their strategy to get a slice of the chocolate market, which is worth more than NT$9 billion a year.

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