DIRECT TRADE
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
Tanzania
REGION
Kilombero, a fertile floodplain bordering the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, known for its rich biodiversity including birds, primates and elephants.
GENETICS
Trinitario
PRODUCERS / PLANTATIONS
Kokoa Kamili, a company created by entrepreneurs Brian LoBue and Simran Bindra, buys from 1500 small cacao producers (each with 2.5 acres or less) in the Kilombero District. Kokoa Kamili purchases freshly harvested wet cacao (beans recently extracted from the pod) at prices far above the local market rate. Wet cacao is then expertly fermented and dried in the company’s fermentation and drying complex.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Before Kokoa Kamili was created, cacao producers in the Kilombero would sell small batches of poorly fermented beans, dried in their own yards, at a low price set by the sole buyer in the region. The higher price paid by Kokoa Kamili has increased both income and standards of living for the1500 cacao farming families of the Kilombero.
Brian and Simran, with their professionalism, have positioned Tanzania as the premier African country producing fine cacao, now used by many of the world’s top bean to bar chocolate makers.