Farmers prepare for annual Bougainville chocolate festival

Business

COCOA farmers across Bougainville are preparing their world-class beans for the third annual Bougainville Chocolate Festival.
The festival will have cocoa beans from across the three regions processed into chocolate for judging by a panel of international chocolatiers.
Last year’s festival gold medalist Nathan Ambi from Wisai, South Bougainville, said the aim was to repeat his performance this year.
“When I won gold last year, I felt on top of the world, I was so proud,” Ambi said. “We’ve been working with the community to improve both the quality and the quantity of the beans.
“It needs the community to come together, to work together and to work hard.”
The Bougainville Chocolate Festival has been linking the best quality-producing farmers with international cocoa buyers and chocolate makers since 2016.
The festival this year would purchase chocolate-making equipment so that farmers and families could see for the first time the chocolate-making process from start to finish.
Autonomous Bougainville Government Department of Economic Development Secretary Steven Tsivele said they wanted to increase international exposure to Bougainville’s production of quality cocoa.
“As a direct result of the festival, Bougainville farmers have established direct relationships with overseas chocolate makers and are now selling their beans for award winning chocolate,” Tsivele said.
“The Festival is also a fun programme with music, films, entertainment and stalls from last year’s gold medalist displaying their chocolate.
“We want to encourage ‘the next generation’ of cocoa farmers — young people and women.”
The festival will be held over two days on Sept 21-22.
It is an initiative of the Autonomous Bougainville Goverment with the support of the governments of PNG, Australia and NZ.