Swiss chocolate maker Chocolat Stella SA has offered to sign a sourcing MoU with cocoa farmers in Idukky and Wayanad for beans with organic certification. Entry of new European buyers could open a ?more the merrier? world for Indian cocoa producers, facing marketing issues.
Two representatives of Chocolat Stella SA are on a ten-day tour of cocoa nurseries from next week to chart the supply potential. Chocolat Stella SA is a producer of premium Swiss chocolates, who takes pride in ?environment-oriented production? and in being ?a reliability reference?. The Swiss buyer?s representatives and farmers will interact from October 28 to November 7, a spokesman from the Indian Organic Farmers Company told FE. On November 2, Markos Lutz, a senior official of Chocolat Stella SA will give lectures on cultivation practices expected for the cocoa the company purchases.
It is the trend of foraying into organic cocoa cultivation in Kerala that stirred the interest of the European confectionary major, according to Antony Kandirikkal, head of CADS, a cocoa marketing company. ?This gives cocoa from the Western Ghats a distinct quality edge,? he said. A hybrid variety developed by Kerala Agricultural University, named FI hybrid, claims to boost beans output by 25%.
However, farmers say that the long-term supply contract is the crucial factor. One may recall ?the great cocoa betrayal? story in agricultural history in 1981, when a chocolate firm had dropped Indian cocoa farms, when there was a better harvest in Ivory Coast. ?Although margins in cocoa farming are tempting, a single or dual buyer situation created market distortions,? says Dilip Marthandan, a farmer. Although price-terms in the deal are yet to be finalised, there has been some understanding that organically cultivated beans would fetch a 30% mark-up in price, sources said.