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By Alexis Monteith/Contributor

Pure Chocolate Jamaica won the international Cacao of Excellence Gold Award this year in the Central American and Caribbean category for the quality of their cocoa beans.

The win was a culmination of their efforts to not just elevate their chocolate products but also to enhance the overall quality of cocoa in the industry.

The Cacao Of Excellence programme, run by the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, conducts thorough physical quality and sensory evaluation of cocoa beans from chocolate manufacturers and cocoa farmers around the globe to determine the prize winners.

“To be successful in the Cacao of Excellence competition you first need to make it through the initial selection round,” explained Wouter Tjeertes, Pure Chocolate’s co-founder.

“The 2023 selection round saw 222 samples from all over the world. We made it into the final 50 on our way to copping the prize. Other Jamaican samples were submitted but, unfortunately, did not make the cut.”

Despite this accomplishment Tjeertes believes that for his company and other Jamaican chocolate makers to maintain their progress, improvements in quality must not only be implemented by individual manufacturers but across the entire cocoa industry on the island with emphasis on the farmers. And it must revolve around capacity expansion.

He is convinced that these broader enhancements are essential for leveraging Jamaica’s internationally acclaimed cocoa.

“The primary goal is capacity building,” the Ocho Rios–based chocolate maker insisted. “The country’s cocoa production has decreased from 350 tonnes a year to 100 tonnes, and the aim is to restore its capacity while ensuring the highest quality. Achieving this will help put Jamaica on the map as a producer of some of the finest products in the world, similar to its reputation for coffee.”

“This will benefit everyone involved in chocolate production, allowing them to fetch the highest prices and establishing Jamaican cocoa as high-quality and potentially more expensive,” he continued.

To that end, Pure Chocolate has been actively working to improve the output and quality of Jamaican cocoa farmers by engaging their own farmers and others in daily interactions to share knowledge, ideas, and examples of best practice. They facilitate training and implement strict protocols that farmers must adhere to.

“We do it ourselves, but we also have training sessions provided by the International Trade Centre (ITC) through their Alliances for Action programme,” Tjeertes revealed. “This year alone we have trained 25 farmers.”

In 2022 Pure Chocolate was recognised for these business and agricultural initiatives when Rennae Tjeertes, co-founder of the company and wife of Wouter Tjeertes, won the Marcus Garvey Award for Agriculture.

“Renee won it because we’re really investing in the economy and the community,” Tjeertes expressed.

Meanwhile, Pure Chocolate will take advantage of its Cacao of Excellence award to bolster its exports in 2024 with a roll-out of new products. It already has one gold, five silver and seven bronze Academy of Chocolate awards, among other prizes for existing chocolate bars.

“With this year’s Cacao of Excellence award for our cocoa beans plus the other awards for our chocolate products in recent years, we are the only chocolate maker on the island that can claim to make international award-winning chocolate from international award-winning cocoa,” Tjeertes emphasised.

“These unique selling points are not easily replicated and will tell potential clients what our standards are.”

The company is expanding its international market from mainland Europe to the UK and has already successfully shipped products to two new distributors in the USA, reaching over 50 locations. For the rest of 2024, they will focus on obtaining additional accreditation, finalising their UK project, launching a new product line locally, and advancing their farm projects.

“We work closely with our farmer and partner Mr. Bodie in Portland who shared the Cacao of Excellence award with us,” the chocolate manufacturer revealed. “And now we have a couple more farmers in St. Mary who will work exclusively with us.”

He is happy with the gains his company is making but believes that if the wider vision of progress for the industry is to be achieved, the government must expand its role.

“The government is actively working on projects to tackle issues like the frosty pod disease, and they’re doing a pretty decent job,” Tjeertes informed. “We are getting help from JACRA (Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority). They offer support with the export of our chocolates and with other aspects of the business and they helped us submit our application to the Cacao of Excellence.”

“But there is still a lot to be done,” he added. “If you look at the Dominican Republic or if you look at Trinidad, they are way bigger than us in terms of capacity and quality when it comes to production.”

According to Tjeertes, both Trinidad and the Dominican Republic have more players, producers, and farmers actively involved in the industry, creating a notable gap between them and Jamaica. The Dominican Republic, in particular, benefits from strong government support for its cocoa industry, which has led to substantial growth and income.

“They put a lot of push behind it through financial support, festivals and various other initiatives,” he pointed out. “It’s pretty much like what Jamaica does with coffee. But they do it with both cocoa and coffee.”

Tjeertes acknowledges that it will take time for Jamaica to catch up to the output of its neighbours but Pure Chocolate remains committed to the vision of elevating Jamaica’s chocolate manufacturing and cocoa industry to the global stage.

“We will continue to expand to make sure we can supply our chocolate making needs, and who knows, perhaps even export some of our award winning beans,” he expressed.