Choco Togo, a Togolese cooperative with an idea to revolutionize the chocolate industry in Africa, plans to produce a 100% Bio chocolates that can be sold in the market at a temperature of up to 35 degrees.
Choco Togo plans to produce a 100% Bio chocolates
The challenge is great but the motivation, even more. Agbokou Komi, the sponsor of the project, is angry ‘‘It is more than 120 years that Togo started cultivating cocoa, but the country does not export.The Togolese people don’t even know the taste of chocolates’‘ he said.
‘‘As we cannot compete with Ivory Coast and Ghana in terms of quantity, we can stand in terms of quality’‘he added.
For him, the Togolese cocoa has a particular aroma, due to the land and the fact that everything is done by hand. He said the seeds are Dryed in the sun, adding that machines are not used.
Agbokou has been able to mobilized 1,500 producers of cocoa beans kernels from the south west region of the country.
They are quarantined by women and then moved to Lome in tablets of 80 grams sold for 1000 Francs CFA (1.50 euro) in unit.
In making the Choco Togo, almost the entire of the Togolese beans were used.
He said to enjoy chocolates,one had to get in one of the supermarkets in the country and buy the expensive imported ones, which sometimes contain barely 30 per cent of cocoa.
He explained that his Choco Togo cocoa is organic and certified by Ecocert and Rianforest Alliance, two international organizations that ensure that products meets the environmental and social criteria.
The Togolese chocolatier produces a natural chocolate and very high content in cocoa, its main target is the local market. Its grainy texture, chocolate is resistant to heat.
For conservation, there is no need a refrigerator since it can withstand a temperature of 35 degrees. A very practical situation for many Togolese homes, which do not have a refrigerator.