Caribbean Export OUTLOOK 3rd Edition

Our Competitive Advantage 74

geographical indicators, we can cut down the value chain to two or three participants. To ensure cocoa farmers produce a quality product consistently, we've got to reduce the number of participants in the chain. If you try to do what we were doing without changing the methodology, it's not going to be viable; it is not going to work." Parasram, who last October launched the Trinidad & Tobago Single-Estate Chocolate Collection at London's famous department store Harrods, added that "intertwining the growing interest in provenance and origin of ingredients with the need for better sustainability and management of resources is the way to grow the fine flavor cocoa industry in the Caribbean." As Parasram works to leverage his recent success with Harrods and winning awards for branding and chocolate, he is working on developing a strong presence in the European market, focused not only on consumer retail outlets but also restaurants and hotels. As of April 2018, the five-year-old company which only started production in 2016, will be shipping a ton of fine flavor cocoa to 15 restaurants and hotels in London each month. Also, they

and capture more of the fine flavor cocoa market valued at US$4billion annually. One approach to achieving higher profits is for fine flavor cocoa farmers to participate in a cocoa bean to bar model where there is improved transparency in the cocoa global value chain and also lesser participants which results in higher profits for all. So beyond the cocoa farm site visits across the Caribbean region, the Trinidad & Tobago Fine Cocoa Company is also currently working with fine flavor cocoa farmers locally to process their cocoa beans and ultimately create and market products directly to consumers. They have also begun purchasing cocoa nibs from the Dominican Republic to make into chocolate for sale under their brand. Their state of the art factory can process 100 metric tons of cocoa annually and have started with 50 tons per annum to ensure quality control. Production will increase to 100 metric tons in the coming years as they begin to work with more cocoa farmers across the Caribbean region. The TTFCC founder explains that by "using technology, international standards, traceability, intellectual property,

TTFCC Production Team

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