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CHOCOLATE IS WORTH $1. Billion in australia, and single-origin is the fastest growing trend within this industry. Twenty years ago it was thought impossible to grow cocoa here in Australia. In 2002 the first cocoa pods were harvested in Mossman, Queensland. A fledgling company, Daintree Estates cocoa, is involved in the study and further refinement of the technology.
CHOCOLATE IS WORTH $1. Billion in australia, and single-origin is the fastest growing trend within this industry. Twenty years ago it was thought impossible to grow cocoa here in Australia. In 2002 the first cocoa pods were harvested in Mossman, Queensland. A fledgling company, Daintree Estates cocoa, is involved in the study and further refinement of the technology.
CHOCOLATE IS WORTH $1. Billion in australia, and single-origin is the fastest growing trend within this industry. Twenty years ago it was thought impossible to grow cocoa here in Australia. In 2002 the first cocoa pods were harvested in Mossman, Queensland. A fledgling company, Daintree Estates cocoa, is involved in the study and further refinement of the technology.
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.