Building Australias cocoa industryCHOCOLATE IS WORTH $1.4 billion in Australia, and single-originis the fastest growing trend with-inthisindustry.However,thereareongoingcon-cernsoverglobalcocoasupplyshortages,making efforts to establish new cocoa industries crucial.Twentyyearsagoitwasthoughtimpossibleto grow cocoa here in Australia. It wasn't until the year 2000thattheQueenslandgovernmentapproved the first of a series of trials to be undertaken in the DaintreeRainforest,andin2002thefirstcocoa pods were harvested in Mossman, Queensland.In2010,aftereightyearsofresearch,studies concludedthatthefoothillsoftheUNESCO heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest provided the ideal conditions for cocoa to thrive. From there Australian-madechocolatefromAustralian-grown cocoa was finally born. Toimproveefficienciesintheindustry,the Queenslandgovernment,togetherwithitsre-search and development partners, created a pro-totype for a mechanical cocoa pod splitter. This machineisestimatedtosplitapproximately 5000cocoapodsperhour.Linkedwithanother machine,whichseparatesthewetbeansfrom 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 thetechnology,andtheprototypeiscurrently undergoing testing and improvement.Earlierthisyearthecompanyachievedanim-pressive milestone in the local chocolate industry whenitfinishedconstructiononits dedicated post-harvest pod processing facility in Mossman.Post-harvest processing is an integral part of cre-ating the best flavour precursors in choco-late. The facility handles pod splitting and beanextraction,fermentation,drying, roasting, cracking and winnowing.DaintreeEstatesalsohasasmall-scalechocolate-makingoperation whererecipedevelopment,conching, tempering and moulding operations are tested.Newmachinesforthecocoain-dustryarealsotestedforimprovement and refinement. The facility provides an integralstepincreatingandcrafting Australianchocolateanddevelopingandim-proving current cocoa processing practices.LAYING THE GROUNDWORKThefacilityislargelybasedontraditionalcocoa processing methods practised and refined through trial and error around the world. From there, Dain-tree Estates has selected and adapted procedures thatarebestsuitedfortheAustralianenviron-ment. While some processes are mechanised, oth-ers, 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 monthstoripenandmatureonthetree.Once ripe,thepodsarecarefullyharvestedbythe farmersandplacedincratestobedeliveredto the post-harvest facility.Daintree Estates Cocoa is breaking new ground in cocoa farming and chocolate production in Australia. Elaine Young takes a look inside the companys post-harvest facility.Food&Drink BUSINESS|June 2015 16