FCIA Celebrates the Small Business of Craft Chocolate
We are excited to be a part of the FCIA, the Fine Chocolate Industry Association and their Make Mine Fine online market place. The FCIA is the leading voice on quality and innovation in the craft chocolate world. They recognize and showcase all the layers of fine chocolate, from farming techniques and fermentation, all the way to chocolate bars and specialty confections.
Each month the FCIA chooses a relevant topic to raise awareness for. The FCIA has chosen the month of May to be small business awareness month with a chocolate box giveaway, and we are proud to be featured as one of their small batch chocolate makers alongside Dick Taylor, and Goodnow Farms.
The small Business of Craft Chocolate
Craft chocolate makers are also small businesses, and it takes a lot to make a small business work. Especially with smaller teams, sometimes the CEO also needs to be the production team, the dish washer, the customer service specialist, and the janitor.
On top of that, making craft chocolate adds another layer of complexity — as flavors and supply demands change from month to month, and season to season. At Moka Origins, we also strongly focus on transparent sourcing, farmer reciprocity, and our own small business farm in Cameroon.
Farmers as Small Business Owners
Our small business started in Cameroon Africa, as a community fruit tree and cocoa farm, that is used as a training hub for local area farmers to learn more about sustainable farming and economically viable trading practices. Farmers are also small business owners, and as a small business in agriculture, creating value immensely important. Agricultural products typically do not create a lot of room for profit, and there is a large gab between the amount of time and effort it takes to grow a crop, and the amount a customer is willing to pay for the final packaged good. On our farm, we focus on how quality can earn more than just focusing on quantity. In the cocoa sector, this is how cocoa farmers can make the shift from growing commodity cocoa, to fine flavored chocolate that the FCIA focuses on.
Focusing on these ideals, and seeing tangible results, our Moka Origins farm manager Edwin believes that agriculture has a great opportunity to allow rural communities to thrive. Small agricultural businesses who focus on quality over quantity not only delivers better tasting products, but is valued higher and can be sold for more. In this way, everyone along the supply chain, from farmer to grocery store, can grow together.
This month, the FICA has chosen us, alongside Goodnow Farms Chocolate and Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate. We look at Goodnow Farms and Dick Taylor for inspiration, and highly regard them for their focus on quality and fine flavored cacao — which ultimately reflects a more sustainable (and delicious!) way of making and enjoying chocolate.
Chocolate Break!
It gets even better! On May 27th at 12pm EST, the FCIA will be concluding the month-long celebration with a new event called Chocolate Break on Instagram Live. We’ll be joining with our friends at Dick Taylor, Goodnow Farms, and Bill Guyton, the Director of the FCIA, as we taste chocolate, and talk on the topic of the small business nature of craft chocolate.
Follow Make Mine Fine on Instagram and Facebook, and the FCIA on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter to learn more about the giveaway, and hope to see you at Chocolate Break!
