Transcript
LI PENG MONROE: We enjoyed ourselves so much last time that we really wanted to come back. The other thing we would like to do is catch up with the farmer we purchased beans from and also meet up with some of the suppliers that have made the whole journey of their bean to us come true.
DOMINIC GODFREY: What is so special about Bougainville beans? Is it the terroir as they say about wine? Is it the climate? Is it the combination things? Is it the people? What's the magic?
PETER CHANNELLS: For me, it's just heaven on a stick as a place to visit. It's just absolutely beautiful and the people are very friendly, easy going, so that's good. The beans, we've tried beans from a few countries, and Bougainville have got just a beautiful richness as evidenced, you know we've produced a few chocolates that won some medals internationally based on those beans, so that kind of validates it, but it's also Bougainville and Papua New Guinea is close to Australia's heart and it's nice to be dealing in the region really.
DG: Li Peng you mentioned the catching up with the farmer and this is Martin Donnatus Linnix I'm taking it?
LPM: That's correct.
DG: So you've continued over the last year to deal with Mr Linnix. How has demand changed, has it increased during the course of the last year?
LPM: Certainly our production has increased exponentially in terms of the chocolates that we're making so demand definitely has increased.
DG: So buying beans from this one grower, I'm assuming that it helps you to tell this story about where it comes from, where it's grown and the whole experience - is that part of what you're selling?
LPM: You're exactly right. People are interested in the story behind the chocolate. We have a large Canberra community that is very supportive of what we're doing. They're also very interested in the traceability of our ingredients. Where we started selling our products was in the farmers' markets and we had so many repeat customers - and also the whole interest in the story as to where the beans come from, what results we get from the beans - they're so fascinated by it as are we.
DG: One of the terrible things, the dark side of the chocolate industry worldwide, is that the story is quite often hidden from view and that is that there's a lot of child labour involved, people are never sure where the money's going to, how much of it ends up back with the grower - the people involved directly at the coalface of farming these beans - I'm taking it that is quite different for your growers in Bougainville?
PC: Totally different. Well clearly we deal with Martin, it's a personal relationship and when you get quality beans you obviously pay more for it, more than the market price. And the market price is really bad at the moment so even if you were a farmer who was able to receive market price, they're still on the borderline of the working poor. Part of the process of the whole Bougainville festival was to improve the handling of the beans by the farmers because a lot of farmer have got no idea what chocolate is. What happened at the first festival was farmers sent beans in, had chocolate made and they got to taste the chocolate. And some of it was really bad because cocoa beans as they're drying, if you're using a wood fire and your equipment's not up to scratch, the smoke leaks out and the beans suck the smoke in and so you end up with chocolate that tastes like the ash out of a fire. So what we're able to do by our involvement is to work with farmers to get them to improve - understand why - but to get them to improve their processes, and that will increase the price.
For more information about the chocolate festival, visit their website