Farmers, chocolatiers look to create a market for Indian-flavoured chocolates

Three and a half years ago, brothers-in-law Karthikeyan Palanisamy and Harish Manoj Kumar decided to experiment with a unique business proposition — growing cacao and selling chocolate. Neither of them had any experience in the food business but Kumar quit his job as an engineer and returned to his Coimbatore hometown to become a fulltime farmer. His initial plan was to grow cacao and export the beans. He wasn’t discouraged by the fact that India wasn’t among the world’s largest producers, which are Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, Cameroon and Nigeria.

It was after the first crop that Palanisamy’s palate came into play. He started to tinker with the cacao extract to see if he could come up with unique flavors. Kumar and Palanisamy took samples to Chennai-based L Nitin Chordia, India’s first certified chocolate taster, and asked him to give them a try.

“If he wasn't going to like them, both the idea and the chocolate were going to be binned,” said Palanisamy. But Chordia liked what they’d done and that led to the birth of bean-to-bar brand Socket (that’s how farmers in Pollachi pronounce the word). The company has since established itself as a farm-to-bar name with monthly sales of about 7,000 bars, each costing Rs 200-220.

Mason & Co, Pascal, Earth Loaf, Malabar Secrets and Kocoatrait, apart from Socket, are among Indian chocolatiers making a name for themselves by experimenting with cacao, giving it a local twist. They are dark, bitter, sometimes gooey, with a hint of cardamom, nutmeg. Some may have an aftertaste of Bhut Jolokia (also known as Raja Mirchi ). Leveraging modern retail, e-commerce and more sophisticated taste buds, they rely on local spices and flavors to create a unique taste. They’ve discovered that Indian cacao beans are good enough to compete with South American or African counterparts.

Chordia estimates at least 30 bean-to-bar chocolate makers will hit the scene by 2020.He too has begun making his own chocolates under the Kocoatrait brand. (Cacao is pure chocolate; it’s processed into cocoa with the application of heat.) Globally, cacao has been on a rollercoaster from an all-time peak of $3,826 per tonne in March 2011 to a low of $1,815 a tonne in December the same year. Last year, cocoa futures returned 28% on the back of global supply shortages. Indian farmers have as a result ramped up production and many are seeking to make value additions themselves. The current farm and bean-to bar market, while nascent, is estimated to be Rs 6-8 crore and is expected to grow at 200-250% annually over the next two-three years. It should then grow at about 50% annually thereafter, said Chordia.

Designer Bina Ramani has entered with spice-infused Malabar Secrets chocolates that are a hit with members of the Cadbury family among others, she said. She uses cacao from her Chikmaglur farm.

For Ramani, the packaging is key and accounts for upwards of 45% of expenditure. “My early career at Taj Hotels taught me that I shouldn’t compromise on the packaging.”

Farmers, chocolatiers look to create a market for Indian-flavoured chocolates
Tamil Nadu is home to what’s probably the country’s biggest bean-to-bar company, Mason & Co, which makes as many as 12,000 bars a month. It was set up by Jane Mason and Fabien Bontems in Auroville five years ago after they explored cacao plantations in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka. The brand is available in more than 100 stores in 12 cities with most sales in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru.

Chocolatier Devansh Asher, partner at Pascati Foods, said Indian palates are still largely habituated to the sweetness of traditional chocolate confectionery.

“It's definitely challenging when chocolate is associated with sweetness. But there are a few quality chocolate makers out there doing anywhere close to ?8-10 crore of chocolate sales already,” he said. The company’s annual chocolate sales have jumped to Rs 80 lakh from Rs 8 lakh three years ago. Most of this comes from corporate gifting and the hospitality industry that keeps them going during the leaner, summer months.

Euromonitor estimates that India's confectionery chocolate segment grew 12.8% in 2013-18. This is dominated by the likes of Mondele z, which sells Cadbury chocolates, Nestle and Amul. Meanwhile, new entrants like ITC’s Fabelle and the Munjal family’s Choko La, which has been around for about 15 years, are aiming for the more upscale market. Imported brands like Royce also have stores but focus on chocolates across all categories.

NATURAL CAUSES

David Bello, a Britisher based in Mysuru, has been making beanto-bar chocolates with a team of seven under his Earth Loaf label for over three years. After last year’s Kerala floods wiped out cacao supplies, he’s been looking for alternative sources in Nicaragua, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

Synthite, a Rs 1,600 crore natural food ingredients firm in Kochi, has just launched a farm-to-bar chocolate this month under the brand name Paul and Mike—Farmers and Fermenters with flavours such as custard apple, Alphonso mango, Jamun, Amazonian Pink Pepper, Balkan Rose and more in 70g and 14g bars.

“We use fine flavour cacao beans, real fruits and pure cocoa butter in our chocolates. At Rs 3.5 per gram, our price is almost the same as that of imported bulk brands such as Lindt and Ritter Sport but the quality is in the league of international fine chocolate brands such as Valrhona (of France) and Pacari, a farm-to-bar brand from Ecuador retailing at Rs 9 per gram in India due to high import duties. We are committed to make this brand grow to Rs 250-300 crore in the next few years,” said Vikas Temani, project lead, Paul and Mike.

Some farmers add natural vanilla to neutralise bitterness, unlike other parts of the world. “It’s still a small segment and as a concept, it hasn’t evolved yet. Maybe it’s because Indian cocoa tastes different from the rest of the world,” said Aaditya Singhal, managing director, Mandara Orchard, one of the biggest importers of artisanal chocolates in India.

Chordia, who sells about Rs 1 lakh of chocolate each month, is encouraged by the response. “Our sales are driven by a rather unique set of consumers who care about sustainability and the use of local products. We rely primarily on the online channels across metro cities,” he said.

Source:-https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/food-entertainment/grocery/farmers-chocolatiers-look-to-create-a-market-for-indian-flavoured-chocolates/68018534