Today we visited Sibo Chocolate, a gourmet chocolate maker near San Jose city. Just like with coffee, Costa Rica is a small country, so companies must market premium products to compete. Chocolate makers from Costa Rica simply cannot compete in quantity; there is not enough land to achieve this. Instead, they focus on making high-quality chocolate, which we tasted on the tour today. There are a couple process points similar between the coffee and chocolate. They both undergo sun-drying after washing and fermentation. Another step in each process involves roasting, which gives both coffee beans and chocolate their respective flavors. The overall process of getting from a cacao plant to roasted cacao beans is very similar to the processing of coffee cherries into roasted coffee beans. The steps after this, however, differ in most cases. Coffee beans just need a brewing process, whereas chocolate needs the addition of sugar and further refining to become a smooth chocolate bar.

Just like coffee, the chocolate supply chain has many challenges. Very similar, cacao plant growers feel they do not receive enough money for their crop. This makes it difficult for companies like Sibo Chocolate who act as a middle point between the growers and marketplaces; they must pay the farmers enough to buy enough cacao for their business. At the same time, they must sell the final product at a low enough price to attract the costumers. Unfortunately, it is very challenging to keep both sides happy. This is very similar to coffee, where regulations are put into place to ensure the farmers get paid enough for their crop. Even then, the incentive for farmers to continue growing coffee or chocolate is not enough. For both coffee and chocolate, sourcing the raw material for further processing can be very challenging. This makes vertical integration look wise, as controlling the growing, processing, and some selling of these products ensures proper sourcing and better stability. Just like coffee, the cacao tree faces the threat of disease. If disease strikes many farms, the harvest yields go down, putting strain on the chocolate manufacturers, who then lack the materials to keep up with demand of their consumers. With disease problems, sourcing proper amounts of cacao is difficult for manufacturers like Sibo.

For lunch, we visited Riverside Pizzeria and Gastropub, which emphasizes a farm-to-table concept of dining. On their property, they grow the toppings that appear on their pizzas and pastas as well as compost. This brings up a key similarity between Sibo Choclate, Cafe Britt from earlier, and Riverside. These companies all have a manufacturing role in the supply chain. For Sibo that means manufacturing chocolate, roasted coffee beans for Cafe Britt, and meals for Riverside. Being on the manufacturing side of the supply chain, these companies all have a challenge sourcing the raw materials necessary for manufacturing as described above. What these companies are looking into is producing their own raw material for manufacturing. Cafe Britt bought Doka Estates to grow the coffee beans. Riverside grows many plants that end up on pizzas, salads, and pasta dishes. Sibo, however, still must source cacao from completely outside sources. Going along with the vertical integration idea, each one of these companies has a way to directly sell to their customers, avoiding the extra step of markets to some extent. Cafe Britt has coffee shops all around Costa Rica and does their own shipping for direct orders inside and outside of the country. Riverside has their restaurant, where they sell directly to their customers. Sibo has a restaurant and also has direct shipping from their website. Through vertical integration, these companies are looking to reduce the number of hands the product has to go through to reach the customer.