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Vanuatu-based Aelan Chocolate Makers is hoping its participation in the Salon du Chocolat in Japan will be the breakthrough that the company needs in 2021.
“This participation is crucial for us at the moment where we are struggling exporting our products overseas and with the collapse of the tourism industry in Vanuatu, said Sandrine Wallez, Manager of Aelan Chocolate Makers.
Due to travel restrictions brought on by the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the company’s distributor in Japan assisted with participation and promotion of Aelan Chocolate at the event in Tokyo this week.
Aelan Chocolates vegan fine dark chocolate from Islands origins (Malo, Epi, Santo and Malekula islands) and the flavoured chocolate (crystallized ginger, crystallized turmeric, coconut, sea salt, cocoa nibs, coffee, nangai nuts) were showcased at the festival.
”By promoting our chocolate at the Salon du Chocolat in Japan we hope that our export market will increase in Japan,” Ms Wallez said.
Aelan (which means island in Bislama) is the community brand for all the products coming from the small-scale producers and the communities from the islands of Vanuatu.
The international award winning Aelan chocolate is known for being distributed in business class on the Air Vanuatu flights.
Some hotels were also offering Aelan chocolate to their VIP guests and the chocolates could be found at duty-free stores, boutiques and the local supermarkets in town.
However, all that changed for the chocolate makers in 2020, with COVID-19 shutting down borders in March and the very powerful Tropical Cyclone Harold wreaking havoc in Vanuatu in April.
Exports and sales were affected.
According to Ms Wallez, 2020 was also particularly difficult for their cocoa producers especially those on Malo island, who lost their plantations during the cyclone.
”By promoting our Aelan Chocolate in Japan and it still gives us some markets for our chocolat and assisting our producers to generate income with the sales of their cocoa beans.”
The chocolate makers are strangers to the international festival having participated in the Salon du Chocolat in Paris in 2017.
Two cocoa producers Moli Lui from Malo and Mabong Naki from Malekula, who participated at that event, were selected among the best 50 cocoa producers in the world at the Cocoa of Excellence competition.
Aelan Chocolate was also represented at the Salon du Chocolat in Tokyo last year.
For the company that started from the ground-level, it has won international awards with 2 Gold Medals, 8 Silver Medals and 2 Bronze Medals for our Aelan chocolate at the International Salon du Chocolat in New Zealand in 2017 and at the International Artisan Chocolate Salon In San Francisco in the USA in 2018.
Photo file Aelan Chocolate/Facebook