Now that I know how chocolate is supposed to taste, no other chocolate confection will every satisfy me. This trip has educated me a whole bunch, but what it really has taught me is how much we are missing out in the US. And while coffee and chocolate are similar in their supply chains, what is the relationship between these beloved products? Thinking about this from the standpoint of my group’s research, planning, they are similar in the immense amount of planning behind a successful business and product. These crops are similar in that there is a lot of planning before there is even a fruit to be harvested. Coffee is planned three years in advance and takes a long time before there are beans to be sold. Cacao is similar in that a forest needs to be planned in order to have a cacao fruit appear, today’s tour taught me that planting a cacao tree means planting a forest because of cacao’s need for lots of shade. In my own understand, I interpret these crops as having a relationship in both of their immensely intricate processing.
And while the process is intricate and thoughtful for a chocolate bar to come to life, there are many other challenges and risks within a chocolate supply chain. In specifics with Sibö’s business, their importance on sustainability can sometimes hinder their outreach. By being more sustainable there is a bit of a larger price tag because your are putting more thought and love into your product. Additionally, there are always trends in food, so you may not always be answering the “trend” of chocolate at that moment. For example, white chocolate may have been all the rage at the time of Sibö’s beginnings but they were focusing on primarily dark chocolate products, which could lose some business because it’s just not what people are looking for in that moment.
I think that since chocolate and coffee have loads of similarities, their main companies do as well. Britt and Sibö take sustainability quite seriously, which is prevalent in their practices. They try to see how the fruit can be used in its entirety and not just used for the initial product they desire. Sibö uses cacao husks for packaging instead of plastic and Cafe Britt takes their environmental impact seriously by making sure they are surrounded by mature greenery and using clean practices.
After seeing all the company tours of our trip, I have realized that the biggest things behind all of these successful businesses are their pride and resilience. So, if I were to export a tropical crop product I would be happy to be a part of this agricultural community in this country. But after seeing all the plantations and factories I would most love to be a part of the coffee or chocolate industries because they are the ones I personally feel the most passionate about and can see the most growth for in the future.
