We are truly grateful to all our attendees and speakers who flew in from the US, UK, Switzerland, Belgium and as far away as Japan to speak at and attend our inaugural event.
These incredibly busy chocolate makers and industry professionals took time from their hectic schedules to spend 5 days at origin, getting to know us, our team, our farms, our farmers and of course our chocolate products.
Everyone contributed and shared their own ideas and experiences about the chocolate industry.
Werner Rüegsegger spoke about his 56 years in the chocolate/confectionary industry across Europe and Asia. Andres Lopez explained the “Art of Cacao Science” and how our Team is implementing modern farming practices in Belize.
Jacques Cöp explained how he has taken the UK by storm with his unique Raw & Vegan chocolate products. Then Oliver Van Nueten wowed the whole group by presenting us with a Maya Temple hand-crafted completely out of our Belizean chocolate. Oliver went on further to demonstrate his amazing “chocolate artistry” talents to the amazement of the entire audience.
During their presentations our guest speakers explained what each of them look for when they source their cacao. The answer?
Which fits perfectly with our bean to bar value chain and environmentally and socially sustainable programs.
As a result, we are pleased to announce that you will soon be seeing our cacao beans, semi-finished products and chocolate bars in new locations around the world! Stay tuned for more details!!
The idea of the Symposium was to put Belize cacao back on the map and we have taken the first steps in doing so. Everyone loved the flavor and quality of our products, the passion of our Team and how we value and reward our farmers.
We took everyone through the entire chocolate making process from seed to bean to bar.
Starting with a visit to our 50,000-sapling capacity nursery, our 60 metric tonne annual capacity fermentation & drying depot, out to some of our 5 cacao farms and ending at our chocolate making factory and outlet store.
Then we rounded off the event on the final day of our Symposium with a Farmers Appreciation Day.
For the first time ever, these native Maya cacao farmers were invited to see what happens with the cacao beans that they work so hard to produce. It was our pleasure to introduce them to the Team and our attendees so they could have a chance to tell their story.
As a real first for the farmers, we hosted them on a factory tour where we explained how their beans are processed and turned into rich, delicious chocolate.
Can you believe that most of them have never tasted chocolate made using THEIR beans?
Well now they have and each month during harvest season they will continue to get more FREE samples to enjoy at home and share with their families.
There is so much to cover in summarizing the event it could not possibly fit in one email, so we have created a short video with some of the Symposium highlights.
More detailed footage coming soon!
This Symposium style event will be the new tour format going forward where industry professionals and real estate investors alike will be invited to experience the entire package at origin.
So, whether you are looking to add single estate cacao products to your menu or to add cash flowing cacao farmland to your portfolio, these are the events for you.
Contact us for more details.
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