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I think it’s good to see raw producers start working up market to make their own chocolate. I think a Ghanaian chocolate brand actually owned by Ghanaians and m
by prepend 6y ago
I think it’s good to see raw producers start working up market to make their own chocolate. I think a Ghanaian chocolate brand actually owned by Ghanaians and made for export would market very well.
It’s interesting to me how much tasty and interesting stuff in Africa has not been marketed internationally and there’s lots of room for them to grow and develop.
For example, fonio [0], is a grain native to west Africa that I’ve never seen in the US but was eaten every day when I was there, as common as rice. It’s gluten-free and could be the next quinoa and a great opportunity to develop a new brand and export finished products rather than just commodities.
One of the big opportunities of all this digitization, I think, is that it’s now easier for remote locations to get more value out of their commodities than just exporting raw and having someone else add most of the value.
I’m surprised the Swiss aren’t trying to do more joint ventures to develop chocolate making capabilities in Ghana.
- hanche 6y agoI satisfy my chocolate cravings with chocolate from fairafric now. Chocolate produced all the way from the tree to packaged chocolate bars in Ghana. They ran a couple kickstarter projects to get going. It's excellent chocolate too! At least the dark variants, which are the only ones I care about. https://fairafric.com/en/home/ https://fairafric.com/en/home/
- kzrdude 6y agoVery cool. Just note (since it's on topic here) that their team is mostly German, not from Ghana https://fairafric.com/team/ https://fairafric.com/team/
- hanche 6y agoTrue. However, they seem to be working hard – and with some success, I believe – at transferring ownership and responsibility to their partners in Ghana.
- auiya 6y agoThere's a smoked chili pepper which I believe is native to the area that is labeled as "ghana pepper" for export, and is hard to find elsewhere. It is _incredible_.
- zymhan 6y agoAFAIK peppers are native to the Americas, I'm not sure there is a "native" African pepper. Though they certainly could have been cultivating them for 400-500 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_pepper#Origins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_pepper#Origins
- exhilaration 6y agoThanks, another item to add to my list: corn, tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers. All are now staples worldwide but were unknown outside of the Americas until ~500 years ago.
- oh_sigh 6y agoCacao seems like a highly relevant addition while you're at it...
- xeromal 6y agoReally?!?!
- devdas 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbian_exchange https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbian_exchange has a whole list.
- nix23 6y agoYou can add Tobacco too ;)
- refurb 6y agoBlew my mind but dragonfruit, which is strongly associated with Vietnam, actually came from Central America.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- simonh 6y agoI found this article about the developing domestic Ghanaian Chocolate industry much more informative than the OP. https://foodtank.com/news/2018/08/ghanaian-chocolate-revolution/ https://foodtank.com/news/2018/08/ghanaian-chocolate-revolut...
- valuearb 6y agoOr they just opened the door for other countries to get in the cocoa business, while their chocolate business fails because they don’t have the expertise, brands or market access to succeed.
- prepend 6y ago[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonio
- devoutsalsa 6y agoMaybe Ghana will buy some Swiss companies.