Online Conference Report for Cacao and Chocolate Summit 2021

Through LinkedIn, I learned about an online conference for the annual Cacao and Chocolate Summit. While I'd love to go to such events, since I do not charge money for our feature articles nor a subscription fee for all of you to read our reports on the products we are sent, I really don't have money to do that. I able to attend every panel over the two days, Wednesday and Thursday, May 26 and May 27, 2021, though I was late to the first one. As a blog that tests and reports on chocolate related products, this is my impression of the event.

Wednesday, May 26

"The State of the Fine Chocolate Market" -- I was a bit late to this one, but from what I heard, the focus quickly turned to the need for chocolate makers to think about the chocolate farmers who make their work possible. The struggle to create industry wide definitions of chocolate came up and a great link was provided that I want to share with those of you who are in the business or are interested in it. There was also a strong focus on how much of a challenge it is to get into making and selling fine chocolate as a small business. Covid-19 was a huge factor in the discussion as well.

I next attended the "Trends in Fine Chocolate Demand" after grabbing some lunch. There were three panelists, all from the USA. The first subject was trends from the past that are now expected and common flavors and styles of fine chocolate and which trends have faded away -- single origins, learning about where cocoa beans come from, trying new flavor combinations, molding and colors, and a return to showing the chocolate making process to the public. There was also a caution about overextending the variety you offer compared to the size of your business, something that was factor in the 18th and 19th century, too. The discussion turned from the trends to asking what the panelists' needs and limitations were in terms of selling chocolate; good but off-topic.

The final panel for the first day was "Trends in Fine Cocoa from the Producers." This was the first panel where I needed to use the Interpretation button on Zoom; a super cool feature I've used on other webinars in the past; it was a bit strange when a female interpreter spoke for a male panelist and a male interpreter for a female panelist. This panel had three speakers. They begin by talking about the changes in the market during covid-19 in 2020. Interestingly, the market in Europe and Australia was hit while in the USA it grew, the vaccination levels also seems to be increasing the demand for new products and thus a demand for cocoa. The panelists were all producers but they were coalitions or cooperatives of farmers not big plantation owners. There was push back in this panel about the idea of "origins" being applied to cacao since multiple varieties of beans used in the same region or even on the same farm. I noticed during this panel that both terms cacao and cocoa were used interchangeably, however, I thought they referred to different things with cacao being the raw products vs. cocoa being the powder that you can create. This panel wasn't all that interesting to me, I wonder if that shows a bias in me about the quality of interpreters; the male voice sounded too calm and low energy.

Thursday, May 27

"The Realities of Entering into the US Fine Chocolate Marketplace" was the first panel of the day. The reason for this panel theme is based on the fact that most common questions asked of these professionals is how to get into the US market if you are not in that nation. Over ten minutes was spent on other matters than the topic at the start of this panel that I really feel should have been part of the introduction not the panel. While the title for the panel included only the US, some of the panelists talked about Europe, too, which was confusing. I feel like the host talked too much about a book from his childhood from about 30-35 minutes into the panel and confused the panelists and the listeners. To summarize, the factors to consider when selling were: location and physical environment, logistics, varied laws, varied price-point markets, lots of variety, many companies already in the market, engaging customers to try to get them to spend more or try other goods, need to connect with your chocolate providers, amount to sell per package matters, and also about the racism, sexism, or ethnocentrism of the culture. I didn't think this panel was as good as the three the previous day in terms of the information provided and the focus on the topic. It was also a bit of a challenge to keep track of the panelists because there were so many.

"Investing in Fine Cocoa" honestly was not an interesting topic for me or for this blog whose readers are primarily consumers, so I only paid a bit of attention at the start. I was impressed that some of the panel has power point presentations which made it much easier to follow. Investing wasn't just about making money as a business, but about supporting farmers, and that was more in line with our values here on this blog. It was a rather sad panel because despite decades now of a focus on cocoa farmers by some chocolate makers, many are not doing well, living in poverty just to give you and I our chocolate fixes. Even the panelist talking about their successes are dealing with small numbers of farmers. 

Unfortunately the zoom feed stopped for me suddenly and I had to try and login again. I tried four times and it never worked. This was disappointing because "Innovation in Fine Cocoa" is interesting to me because I see this push in chocolate to constantly add new products and new flavors, but I am unconvinced that this is what the majority of consumers really want. I see which articles get attention here on The Chocolate Cult. It isn't new and fancy, it is tried and turn flavors and even old-fashioned products. 

I noticed that the panelists ran the gambit from the folks who buy beans and turn that into the chocolate you and I love to those who are buying couverture and turning that into the finished treats to companies working to improve cocoa farming to historians of chocolate. There was a repeated interest in the cocoa farmers and their welfare. These facts gave me hope. The fine chocolate industry isn't huge but it can come across as insular and stuck up, the focus more on the fancy qualities and the higher price and not on the farmer or the consumer. 

I also tried to be active in the event, typing out comments in the chat and asking a few questions in the Q&A. The panel moderators did an excellent job. On the negative side, attendees seemed to struggle with putting their comments vs. their questions into the appropriate areas on the webinar. After over a year of a global pandemic, I think there is little excuse to make those sorts of errors. It only increases the difficult for the moderators.

I hope that in the future, events like this consider continuing being online versus only face-to-face. It certainly opens up such meetings to more professionals, more bloggers, more academics, and even every day folks. I do request that the time between panels be expanded to more than 5 minutes so folks can run to the restroom or get something to eat or drink.