A Swedish non-governmental organisation has joined a partner group from Tailevu in a cultural and knowledge exchange to revive the cocoa industry in the area. Tailevu Province Cocoa Growers and Producers Co-operative Association Limited chairman Josefa Seruilagilagi said the company was ready to embark on a journey into domestic production of genuine chocolate with Cocoa Bello of Sweden.

He said farmers in Tailevu North had begun planting cocoa from 1960 to the 1980s until a disease called black pod affected the crop. “Another problem is that the Ministry of Agriculture at that time could not find a solution to that black pod disease and that’s why the industry broke down,” said Mr Seruilagilagi. At that time, he said, the farmers received about $1.80 per kilogram of beans which had to be sent overseas after it was dried.

Mr Seruilagilagi said they had managed to find a partner from Sweden to produce chocolate locally. “And that means more money for farmers than the dried beans they had to sell in the early days,” said Mr Seruilagilagi. Through the Ministry of Agriculture, he was able to meet the Cocoa Bello NGO chairman Fabian Rimfors who is a professional within the chocolate industry and its related fields.

Mr Rimfors said he was on holiday in Fiji in 2005 and was travelling along the King’s Road in the Wainibuka area when he noticed cocoa plants beside the road. “I decided to stop and asked the locals what have they being doing with the fruits and I was shocked to find that they were not doing anything about it,” said Mr Rimfors. He said the idea came to him that it would be good to establish a business with the Fijians since his mother produced hand-made chocolates from home.