Overview:
A 12 months after being topped with a silver medal, AYITIKA as soon as once more distinguished itself in the course of the fourth version of the chocolate competitors for excellence organized by the Company for the Valorization of Agricultural Merchandise (AVPA). The Haitian firm specializing within the manufacturing and processing of cocoa obtained a Connoisseur-Silver medal for its 70% darkish chocolate, Amelonado & Criollo.
PORT-AU-PRINCE—The France-based nonprofit group, Company for Valorisation of Agricultural Merchandise (AVPA), has positioned Haitian chocolate among the many high on the earth by awarding a gourmand silver medal to AYITIKA, a neighborhood firm specializing within the manufacturing and processing of cocoa.
AYITIKA, primarily based in Les Cayes, the capital metropolis of Haiti’s Southern division, obtained the excellence in Paris on Tuesday for its 70% darkish chocolate marketed as Amelonado & Criollo. The Haitian firm gained the celebrated prize awarded by a gaggle of professional judges chosen by AVPA for its 4th International Chocolate Processed at Origin Contest, aiming at distinguishing product excellence.
For the second 12 months in a row, AYITIKA was distinguished among the many winners, following up on its outstanding efficiency in 2023. Launched on the finish of 2022, the southern Haiti agricultural firm’s chocolate manufacturing facility is turning into well-known and competing toe-to-toe with a number of the greatest manufacturers on the worldwide market, the place its product ranks among the many absolute best on the earth.
“This medal is the fruit of the rigorous, thrilling and collective work carried out for greater than seven years by AYITIKA and its numerous companions, together with cocoa farmers,” rejoiced agronomist Jean Chesnel Jean, Chairman and CEO of the corporate.
From Paris to Les Cayes, about 125 miles south of Port-au-Prince, and to different cocoa-producing areas in Haiti, farmers, managers and staff of cocoa-producing corporations celebrated after AYITIKA was introduced as a medal winner once more in 2024.
Fabienne Colas, cocoa farmer from Torbeck, a commune in Haiti’s Southern division, stated: “I’m doubly proud after profitable this medal. This offers me much more motivation to proceed working in cocoa manufacturing.” Colas, an AYITIKA producing companion, added that profitable the medal on the competitors was additionally a supply of pleasure for her locality, a rural neighborhood— about 11 miles southwest of Les Cayes—to face out in a world competitors for excellence.
Pierre Sully Antoine, one other AYITIKA producing companion, expressed the same sentiment, stating that he joyfully obtained the information with nice pleasure.
For the CEO, this medal additional strengthens the corporate’s dedication to leverage all Haitian skills and know-how with the intention to supply shopper merchandise that mirror the wealthy fragrant range of Haitian cocoa varieties and the standard of Haiti’s distinctive soil and environmental elements.
As was the case in the course of the 2023 version of the competition, this 12 months’s jurors as soon as once more appreciated the variety of origins, tastes and creativity of chocolate producers. The organizers had been capable of classify and order the goodies pretty and choose them for the gastronomic jury.
In response to the organizers, the standard of the goodies introduced within the 2024 contest has additional improved, notably in steadiness and texture, in comparison with displays made within the earlier three editions.
On this 12 months’s contest, 70 chocolate samples from completely different corporations representing about 20 nations had been introduced in two principal classes: darkish chocolate with components and darkish chocolate with out components. A complete of 93 medals had been awarded, together with 6 Connoisseur Gold (Costa Rica, Indonesia, Peru, Sao Tome, and Thailand), 9 Connoisseur Silver (Colombia, Haiti, Peru, Taiwan, and Thailand), and 17 Connoisseur Bronze (Benin, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Uganda, Peru, Sao Tome, Taiwan, Thailand, and Venezuela).
Acknowledged as the most effective cocoa and chocolate specialists in Haiti, Jean Chesnel Pierre praised the corporate’s method, which permits it to manage the complete manufacturing course of, encapsulated in AYITIKA’s slogan: “From the root to the tablet.” A joyful Jean urged the Haitian authorities to create a political and socio-economic surroundings that permits the optimization of the large potential not solely of cocoa but additionally of the complete Haitian agricultural sector.
Based mostly primarily within the South division, AYITIKA has lately expanded its enterprise all through the nation, notably within the neighboring Southeast and Nippes departments, establishing branches in Cayes-Jacmel (Southeast) and Baradères (Nippes). Along with opening its personal company models in numerous areas, Jean defined, the corporate presently collaborates with over 2,500 cocoa-producing households throughout Haiti.
In response to Jean, earlier than launching its operations in chocolate manufacturing in July 2022, the corporate spent over six years conducting product analysis and growth. “Now, we management the complete manufacturing course of from the number of varieties of outstanding cocoa bushes within the plantations to the chocolate manufacturing,” Jean stated.
spent over six years doing analysis and growth. “Now, we management the complete manufacturing course of from the number of varieties of outstanding cocoa bushes within the plantations to the chocolate manufacturing,” Jean stated.