By Samantha Magick
Vanuatu chocolate maker, Aelan hopes to launch a regional chocolate and cacao competition this year as a way of promoting high-quality chocolate from across the Pacific Islands region.
“We’re quite tiny compared to big cocoa producers” says Aelan Chocolate Makers director, Sandrine Wallez.
They may be small, but they’re respected. Aelan’s recent international accolades include five gold, and two silver medals at the Japan Food Awards this month. The recognition comes on the heels of its high ranking at the first ‘Chocolates elaborated at Origin International Contest’ in Paris earlier this year.
The business moved from exporting cacao beans to making chocolate in 2013 after two years of research and development. Aelan, which means ‘island’ in Bislama, was selected because the founders thought it was a good way to represent producer groups from right across Vanuatu.
The company describes itself as a social enterprise, with the chocolate and other commodities (coconut oil, kava, spices) sourced from across Vanuatu funding the Alternative Communities Trade in Vanuatu (ACTIV) organisation. “We have this kind of hybrid structure between social enterprise and NGO, we deal directly with the producers’ group, and for the chocolate, we get our beans from five different islands, from Epi, Malekula, Malo, Santo, and Aore.”
Aelan Chocolate’s main markets are Japan and New Caledonia. Breaking into the Japanese market was quite tough and began with their participation in a 2018 food expo. Getting certification and assistance from trade facilitation bodies helped. While certification has been key, it is an involved and expensive process Wallez says.
“Actually, it’s a lot of documentation that we’re not used to, in our own traditional way of doing business. You have to report everything, you have to record everything you’re making in your formula, any change in your building, any change in your recipe, all the entrants, all the trustability of your product, all the contamination control, pest control. So you have different criteria that you stick to, and then you have to produce a manual of operation that they can check.”
Those checks are usually done annually, with New Zealand auditors flying in to spend time at the business observing processes and making spot checks, but this has been complicated by COVID.
Breaking into the Australian market
“We used to export to Oxfam in Australia before they closed their shop. So now, we’re looking for finding a new distributor in Australia and New Zealand as well,” Wallez says.
COVID has seen production drop by more than half. “We used to make roughly 500 kilos a month before the COVID. So, with COVID now, we reduced more than 60% of the market because we don’t have any more tourists. It’s only the local market and the remaining export market that we try to reach.”
In response, Aelan is working with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) on a concept for a South Pacific cocoa competition.
“We will try to make this competition to promote the Pacific cacao and produce chocolate that could be distributed in Australia. So at least, try to develop a local network and local market instead of looking too far away. With COVID it’s nightmare to reach a market and also very expensive. So, we don’t have any more passengers, the air freight has been like through the roof and it’s really killing us in terms of market access.”
“We have already found a distributor that is interested to distribute the Pacific product, the chocolate, but now we try to make a bit of noise about it.”
Prior to border closures, Aelan’s chocolate factory tours generated a significant proportion of the businesses’ income. “We used to be partnered with P&O, you know the big cruise ships where we were distributing our chocolate on board as well [as doing day tours]. So we lost the distribution on P&O, and we lost the tourists, the visitors coming from P&O.”
Aelan has adjusted in other ways, adding different sizes to their range (which they hope will reduce shipping costs) and changing packaging to reflect more Pacific vegetation.
Wallez hopes initiatives such as the regional chocolate and cacao competition will help island nations respond to the blow dealt by the halt to tourism. “Air Vanuatu is in serious trouble at the moment so we do not even know if we can maintain our national airline. It will be a disaster if we do not have it anymore because it means for all, there is no shipment, especially a product like chocolate because it’s temperature-controlled, it would be a nightmare to export it if we do not have any more airline.
“So COVID is not only affecting our tourism but also all other aspects of the economy around the Pacific Islands. We hope that with this small regional competition will try to join forces to make the Pacific more recognised in the region and especially in Australia.”
