Award-winning PNG cocoa farmers to showcase chocolate in Melbourne
Award-winning cocoa producers from Papua New Guinea (PNG) will team up with some of Australia’s leading chocolate makers to try and create the world’s best chocolate.
Travelling from a remote region in PNG, Steven and Elizabeth Saveke recently won the Bougainville Chocolate Competition, earning the pair an audience with Australia’s leading boutique chocolate makers.
The husband-and-wife duo will meet with seven companies in Melbourne where they will showcase chocolate made from their beans on Wednesday, with some of the resulting products to be entered in competitions around the world.
The event is part of a wider initiative to promote PNG’s expanding cocoa industry, with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) collaborating with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to link PNG’s farmers with international markets.
Andrew Campbell, CEO at ACIAR, said the Taste and Tell event is a great opportunity to raise awareness about PNG’s ability to produce world-class cocoa.
‘Cocoa is the major crop of Bougainville and is a key potential export earner for smallholder farmers,’ says Campbell. ‘There are real opportunities to improve its productivity and quality, but there’s no point if you don’t have a market to sell to. ACIAR is creating market linkages between cocoa farmers in Bougainville to chocolate makers in Australia and around the world.’
Bougainville is an autonomous province within PNG and is recovering from a decade-long crisis that caused significant social and economic disruption. Before the crisis, cocoa was a major contributor to the economy with over 80% of Bougainvilleans involved in cocoa production.
ACIAR has been co-funding the research in Bougainville with DFAT through the University of Sydney since 2016, with the project being part of a wider Transformative Agriculture and Enterprise Development Program (TADEP).
Jasper + Myrtle is one of seven Australian chocolate makers attending Taste and Tell and was one of the first private organisations to collaborate with PNG farmers under TADEP, winning a gold medal at the 2017 Academy of Chocolate awards in London.
Other chocolate makers attending the event include Gabriel Chocolate, Federation Artisan Chocolate, Spencer Cocoa, 17 Rocks Chocolate, Atypic and Ratio Cocoa Roasters. Students from a local high school, Strathcona Girls Grammar, are also taking part in the day’s activities.
Taste and Tell is being held from 2-5pm on Wednesday, 20 March at the Ratio Cocoa Roasters in Brunswick, Melbourne. The event is free and open to the public.
For more information contact:
Shannon Miskelly. Email: shannon.miskelly@aciar.gov.au Mobile: 0466 582 672
Patrick Cape. Email: patrick.cape@aciar.gov.au Mobile: 0466 463 899
Photo caption: Bougainville Chocolate Festival at Arawa, 2017.
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