PNG's Bougainville cocoa wins gold at the 2021 Cocoa of Excellence awards

 The Bougainville cocoa samples  have been recognized as one of the world’s best. This recognition was made after samples of cocoa from Bougainville winning gold at the 2021 Cocoa of Excellence awards ceremony in Rome, Italy.

According to Australia High Commission, the win followed nearly nine months of judging, with cocoa samples from all over the world submitted to the prestigious competition.

The cocoa samples from Bougainville were grown through a research project supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (Aciar), as part of the PNG-Australia Partnership program.

Seven other countries from the Asia-Pacific Region received gold during an awards ceremony last week.

In the lead up to final judging, a total of 235 samples of cocoa from 53 different parts of the world were examined and 50 finalists selected.

A group of international judges made the final selection based on 12 criteria that included bitterness, astringency, acidity, and floral and woody notes.

All judging was blind with samples only assigned a number.

“This is a remarkable achievement, and it will create opportunities for selling Bougainville cocoa in niche markets in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand,” Bougainville Agriculture and Livestock director Wendy Pihau said.

“In the final, Bougainville went up against experienced producers from Hawaii, Indonesia and Malaysia.

“To be ranked with such company is a great achievement.

“To win gold along with traditional producers from South America, Africa and the Caribbean is a banner day for the Bougainville industry.”

The prized cocoa samples were grown and submitted to the competition by the Autonomous Bougainville Government’s Department of Primary Industries (DPI) at their Kubu Research Station near Buka.

James Butubu, the Bougainville coordinator of the Aciar cocoa project, said: “I am just so happy with this achievement for our cocoa industry.”

The Cocoa of Excellence competition is held biennially, and is  co-ordinated by the Rome-based Alliance of Biodiversity International and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture from South America.

It aims to explore and develop cocoa that will add diversity to the varieties available to producers worldwide and ensure the industry can prosper through better genetics and good quality and unique flavour profiles.

Source: The National/One PNG News

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