- Title: Ivory Coast entrepreneur pours love and patriotism into fine chocolate
- Date: 16th May 2023
- Summary: SINFRA, IVORY COAST (APRIL 29, 2023) (REUTERS) AERIAL VIEW OF FOREST COCOA PODS ON TREE KOUAME AND FARMER, ALY SANFO, WALKING THROUGH FOREST KOUAME POINTING TO TREE AND SAYING (French): "At this moment, it's small trade. We don't have enough cocoa yet, so we are looking for any pods that are ripe for harvesting." / KOUAME POINTING TO RIPE PODS, SAYING (French): "Look there
- Embargoed: 30th May 2023 07:56
- Keywords: africa beverages business cocoa cocolate commodities cote d'ivoire emerging markets entrepreneurship food ivory coast trade west africa
- Location: ABIDJAN AND SINFRA, IVORY COAST
- City: ABIDJAN AND SINFRA, IVORY COAST
- Country: Ivory Coast
- Topics: Africa,Commodities Markets,Economic Events
- Reuters ID: LVA002145710052023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: It was love at first sight for Viviane Kouame when, as a teenager growing up in Ivory Coast, she first saw cocoa trees with ripe pods on their trunks that reminded her of babies clinging to their mothers' backs.
She decided cocoa would be a part of her life, and in 2021 she set up her own company, Chocovi, to make and sell chocolate.
"My goal is to... show to the eyes of the world that we can make good chocolate with our quality beans," said Kouame, a rare female entrepreneur in a male-dominated industry. "As I like to say, there can be no chocolate without cocoa."
Ivory Coast is the world's top producer of cocoa beans, but the vast majority is exported and then processed elsewhere, with Ivorians missing out on the added value.
"I went to Italy to train on the process of transforming the cocoa bean to the finished product," she said. "After I returned, the adventure of Chocovi began.’’Â
Chocovi is one of only a small number of companies making chocolate locally. So far, Kouame and her five employees are processing about 2 tonnes of cocoa per year and selling at stalls in malls in the commercial capital Abidjan, but she is seeking investors to scale up.
She expresses her patriotism through her elaborate packaging, with some chocolate bars shaped like a map of the Ivory Coast and others wrapped in paper decorated with images of the country's beauty spots and cultural traditions.
Philomene Dable, a customer at a mall, was impressed with both form and content.
"I tasted the chocolate, it's pure, it's natural," she said, holding an elegant box wrapped in orange, white and green ribbons. "This box, with the national colours of Ivory Coast, it's wonderfully presented. I love it."
(Production: Media Coulibaly, Cooper Inveen) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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