Cover Story
There's Still A 'Good' Future In Cocoa
But reliability of supply is difficult
The fancy packaging for Eddie Wilson’s chocolate is a great enticement to tasting what’s inside. You won’t find chocolate made by his company, Wilex Ltd, outside Samoa, unless a friend brings you some since everything produced is sold locally.
Wilex is the only Pacific Islands producer.
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Wilson has overseas customers for cocoa powder, cocoa butter and cocoa liquor. But Samoa, once the producer of about 5000 tonnes of cocoa a year that was snapped up as a quality blending grade by overseas buyers, is unable to supply all for export.
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A combination of early 1990s hurricane damage that destroyed cocoa plantations and periods of low world market prices that destroyed production incentive, reduced the industry to a shadow of its old self. A lot of plants were eradicated, including a 330-acre plantation that is now Apia’s golf course.
Wilson says production is down to 500 to 600 tonnes a year, “of which almost 75 percent is locally consumed. Samoans use cocoa as a substitute for tea and coffee, so that’s where the main use is.
“Wilex buys about 150 tonnes a year and we sometimes import from Fiji and Vanuatu. But reliability of supply is difficult.”
The world cocoa market price has recently doubled from US$760 to US$1500-US$1600.
“We pay more than US$1500, but the growers still want more, so it is a very sad situation.”
Wilson reckons Samoa still has about 3000 small cocoa growers and that there is still a good future in the industry. But planting requires finance and since Samoan land can’t be used as collateral, would-be growers can’t obtain finance, he says.
Wilex is a mainly family-owned company with origins from 1986 that began with the export of taro. Then blight eradicated almost the entire harvest. Taro, once a major export, is recovering with the planting of a wilt-resistant variety bred for the purpose.
Wilex also produces coconut oil, commercial soap and has just begun exporting pure oil to a boutique soap dealer in Fiji. It produces some nonu juice and kava.
“Basically our main export lines are coconut oil and soap, but copra production is not really sufficient to justify a major increase in production.”
If the new Pacific islands trade agreement yields the trading fruit it is designed to produce, Wilson believes that reliable supplies of cocoa and copra from the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji will open up a lot of opportunities for companies like Wilex.
“We produce possibly the widest range of agricultural products in the Pacific, but we are still a young company.”
