Want to make money by starting a cocoa farming business? Read through this cocoa farming business plan checklist for guidance on cost, profit, farming process, and yield.
This article provides a cocoa farming business plan with a flowchart for a small unit and outlines post-harvest management and processing of cocoa beans to get them ready for consumption.
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Contrary to what many people think, you cannot eat raw cocoa. You must process cocoa beans and cocoa powder into a consumable item. Additionally, even after the coco pods have been picked, post-harvest management is still important.
In fact, there’s rising demand for processed cocoa around the world. If you come from a region where cocoa is grown, consider beginning this type of business. Generally, processed cocoa is used in baking and by confectioners and chocolate-makers.
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Here are the 5 Steps to Start a Cocoa Farming Business
Step 1 – Craft a Business Plan
When starting this business, drafting a business plan is required. This should include essential elements such as the description of the enterprise, products offered, corporate structure, marketing strategy, competitive analysis, operational layout, and financial figures.
Step 2 – Secure a Space
To initiate the unit, you must acquire a significant amount of space. The amount precisely required depends on both the volume of production and the level of processing you intend to begin with.
Furthermore, this type of business requires plenty of room for storing raw materials and finished products. Hence, based on your business plan, you must secure an area appropriate to your operating needs.
Step 3 – Obtain License & Permission
Actually, cocoa processing and making value-added products are considered part of the food processing industry. Thus, you must make sure to check the licensing requirements in your region.
Step 4 – Establish the Unit
To get the unit up and running, machinery installation and electrification will be necessary. Furthermore, to ensure the smooth operation of the unit, you should hire skilled personnel.
Step 5 – Cocoa Processing Method
After picking the pods, they can be held for a maximum of four days. This serves to encourage pre-fermentation within the pods in order to gain high-quality cured beans.
The pods can be broken by smashing them against a hard surface and the beans can be taken out separately from their placenta and stored for fermentation right away.
1. Fermentation
To begin, coat the raw beans with a sweet and sticky goop. These beans are referred to as ‘wet beans.’ Within the wet bean is a kernel that is sour and lacks scent or taste.
Generally speaking, fermentation techniques normally entail combining and maintaining a group of wet beans for four to six days and alternating between stirring them completely on each day.
The material which surrounds the mass is eliminated. Additionally, one can detect a sequence of biochemical transformations in beans. These are vital for instilling the flavor of chocolate.
To yield and retain the heat, one must maintain new beans in a close-packed formation. This facilitates finalizing the chemical reactions inside.
2. Biochemical Changes During Fermentation
Generally, pulp content is about 80% water, 10-15% glucose, and fructose, plus 0.5% non-volatile acids such as citric acid. You need to sterilize it first, due to the high sugar levels and acidic pH 3.5 environment which encourages microbial growth.
At first, the yeast starts to spread and turn sugars into alcohol. As the cells of the sap break down, juices from the pulp will come out as sweat. This is due to either a reaction with enzymes or just mechanical pressure over the course of 24-36 hours.
Yeasts produce CO2 which creates anaerobic conditions for lactic acid bacteria to grow and helps break down sugars.
The activity of bacteria is responsible for generating organic acids. After the sweating has dispersed, aerobic conditions will be present. Furthermore, effusion of citric acid leads to decreased acidity.
With oxygen present, acetic acid bacteria become dominant as yeast are replaced, which results in alcohol being transformed into acetic acid. Consequently, an increase in temperature takes place within the mass of beans.
3. The Temperature in Biochemical Changes During Fermentation
Generally, the temperature rises consistently over the first two days, increasing to 40 – 45°C and then increasing even more when mixed to roughly 48-50°C. This elevating warmth and acidity cause the deaths of beans along with the degradation of their selective permeability.
What’s more, it causes foreign material to diffuse into the beans, resulting in damage to their internal cellular structure. Furthermore, the PH level of cotyledon is around 6.6 however when contents enter the bean this PH drops to approximately 4.8 associated with fermentation.
The acetic acid that permeates the testa influences the breakdown of polyphenol and lipid membranes within the vacuoles of cells. The mix-up of cell contents along with various enzymatic reactions sets oxidation in motion, partially responsible for the taking away of the bean’s bitter taste.
4. Different Methods of Fermentation of Cocoa Farming
Although various fermentation methods are used, the heap box and tray methods are the best-known in cocoa-producing countries.
a) Heap Method
You need to spread banana leaves over wooden sticks and put a minimum of 50kg of wet beans on top. This will help the beans sweat and keep them raised from the ground, which is beneficial.
Gently fold the leaves and place them over the pile. Lay a few wooden pieces on top of them in order to keep the leaves in place. The heap needs to be taken apart and beans mixed on the third and fifth days. Fermentation will be done by the sixth day. You can then take out the beans for drying on day seven.
b) Tray Method
Trays made from wood and measuring 90 cm x 60 cm x 13 cm with either battens or reapers secure at the bottom and intervals in between, are filled up with beans. Each container holds around 45 kg of damp beans. Then stack six such trays on each other with an open tray underneath for draining perspiration.
Once stacking is completed, cover the topmost tray with banana leaves. After 24 hours pass, keep the arranged trays under a covering of burlap sacking to preserve the warmth that is produced.
You do not need to blend the beans. Usually, it requires 4 days for the process of fermentation to be complete. By the fifth day, you should remove the beans for drying out. You must arrange at least 6 trays for this purpose; nevertheless, you can use up to 12 trays simultaneously.
c) Box Method
In this approach, one may use wooden compartments that measure 1.2 m in length, 0.95 m in width, and 0.75 m in depth, with openings at the bases. The sides should be crammed with wet beans; these boxes can usually contain a ton of them.
Blend the pulses every other day; since there is a great quantity to do, it is best done by switching them from one box to another when stirring them.
d) Techniques for Small-Scale Fermentation
For a small-scale procedure, both the tray method and the box approach can be used. Nevertheless, the tray methodology is preferable. It only requires a few beans for operation. Many different variables will shape how long the fermentation process lasts.
Primarily speaking, weather variations and seasons are major aspects to consider. Additionally, unripened pods should never be utilized for fermentation. On top of that, Criollo beans ferment faster than Forastero beans. Properly fermented beans are plump; they contain a reddish-brown liquid inside. The testae become unattached from the cotyledons as well.
Drying
The fermented beans can be dried either with the help of the sun or other artificial techniques. Spread out the beans in thin layers no more than 2-3 cm thick, and remember to stir them regularly when you’re sun-drying. Barring inclement weather, drying should be done within 4-5 days.
During monsoons, it’s best to use mechanical drying methods but still take care not to let your beans get exposed to smoke or fumes. After complete drying, a wrenching sound will come from a handful of beans if you compress them in your palm.
5. Storage of Cocoa
Under the current climate in cocoa-producing regions, the beans will absorb moisture until they reach an equilibrium moisture content. This amount generally is not safe for long-term storage. Thus, you can only store the fully dried beans with a 6-8% moisture content in plastic bags lined with burlap for a short period of time. For proper storage, it is necessary to first clean the beans and break them down into smaller pieces.
Ensure your store has adequate ventilation. Additionally, place the bags on a wooden platform with 15-20 cm of space beneath the planks surrounding the floor. Keeping humidity levels below 80% prevents mold and pest infestation of the beans.
Cocoa has the ability to absorb and keep any smell it is close to, so food should not be stored nearby. Additionally, anything that emits smoke or kerosene fumes must be kept away.
Constructing an excellent flavor for chocolate starts with roasting the cocoa beans and then carrying out additional operations such as extracting cocoa butter from the nibs and including sugar. By taking a look at the flowchart, all of these procedures can be explored in greater detail.
In fact, there are numerous components that have an impact on the flavor of chocolate and the smell of cocoa items. It is dependent on every stage of production.
To make high-grade cocoa products for renowned processed food suppliers, precise standardization is necessary. When running a commercial cocoa processing business, it’s important to implement sustainable techniques to lower losses and maximize profit margins.
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