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Building Australias cocoa industry


Daintree Estates Cocoa is
breaking new ground in
cocoa farming and chocolate
production in Australia.
Elaine Young takes a look
inside the companys postharvest facility.
CHOCOLATE IS WORTH $1.4 billion in Australia,
and single-origin is the fastest growing trend within this industry. However, there are ongoing concerns over global cocoa supply shortages, making
efforts to establish new cocoa industries crucial.
Twenty years ago it was thought impossible to
grow cocoa here in Australia. It wasn't until the year
2000 that the Queensland government approved
the first of a series of trials to be undertaken in the
Daintree Rainforest, and in 2002 the first cocoa
pods were harvested in Mossman, Queensland.
In 2010, after eight years of research, studies
concluded that the foothills of the UNESCO
heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest provided the
ideal conditions for cocoa to thrive. From there
Australian-made chocolate from Australiangrown cocoa was finallyborn.
Food&Drink business| June 2015

To improve efficiencies in the industry, the


Queensland government, together with its research and development partners, created a prototype for a mechanical cocoa pod splitter. This
machine is estimated to split approximately
5000 cocoa pods per hour. Linked with another
machine, which separates the wet beans from
the split pods, the whole system, once successful,
will greatly reduce labour costs.
A fledgling company, Daintree Estates Cocoa,
is involved in the study and further refinement of
the technology, and the prototype is currently
undergoing testing and improvement.
Earlier this year the company achieved an impressive milestone in the local chocolate industry
when it finished construction on its dedicated
post-harvest pod processing facility in Mossman.
Post-harvest processing is an integral part of creating the best flavour precursors in chocolate. The facility handles pod splitting and
bean extraction, fermentation, drying,
roasting, cracking and winnowing.
Daintree Estates also has a smallscale chocolate-making operation
where recipe development, conching,
tempering and moulding operations are
tested. New machines for the cocoa industry are also tested for improvement
and refinement. The facility provides an
integral step in creating and crafting

Australian chocolate and developing and improving current cocoa processing practices.

LAYING THE GROUNDWORK


The facility is largely based on traditional cocoa
processing methods practised and refined through
trial and error around the world. From there, Daintree Estates has selected and adapted procedures
that are best suited for the Australian environment. While some processes are mechanised, others, such as the fermentation process, rely greatly
on natural chemical reactions imparting distinct
flavour precursors on the cocoa.
The cocoa pods take approximately five to six
months to ripen and mature on the tree. Once
ripe, the pods are carefully harvested by the
farmers and placed in crates to be delivered to
the post-harvest facility.

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