Ghanaian chocolatier uses organic locally sourced cocoa to promote product

Akua Obenewaa Donkor makes chocolates from organic locally sourced cocoa in Ghana’s capital, Accra.

She is one of few trained chocolatiers in the country who are carving out a niche for themselves with an aim to promote chocolate made at home, in market that’s dominated by foreign brands.

Akua started her company, Decokraft in 2013 with an initial capital of 1,000 dollars.

Her hand-made chocolates come in different shapes and sizes and also come in custom made designs.

“We make chocolate from the cocoa liquor; we don’t have enough machines to start processing chocolate from the cocoa beans. So we buy already grinded cocoa beans, which is call cocoa mass from another company in Tema. So when we come here we process it and then we make chocolate bars and filled chocolate, when I talk about filled chocolate, they are the tiny ones that has sometimes have caramel, peanut, cornflakes in them. So we make both the bars and the filled chocolate,” said Akua.

Akua says Ghana is capable of adding value to its cocoa and in turn reap more benefits instead.

After processing the chocolate liquor, she adds flavours and ingredients like nuts and other ingredients to produce a variety of bars.

The entrepreneur who is also a communication design graduate says her products don’t have artificial additives and preservatives usually found in chocolates on the market.

“We use the actual cocoa, actual cocoa butter, we don’t substitute it for vegetables fat, we use the pure cocoa butter so we get the creamy chocolate which is also healthy because we are using the natural thing or the actual cocoa product and not substitutes,” said Akua.

Decokraft also specialises in cakes and pastries.

The company supplies chocolate favours for guests at weddings, parties and corporate events.

The company sells about 300 kilograms of chocolates every month. Chocolate pieces sell for between one to three dollars each.

“It’s smooth, very creamy, it tastes sweet, and it tastes natural,” Queen Amebley, an Accra resident.

“I as a customer eat as well, but then do it for all my clients, and I am talking about a in excess of about 200, 300 pieces for any of the awards that we do, Xodus (Events management company) is actually into recognition which is awards. So anytime we are doing an award like an auto award, oil and gas award, manufacturing awards we actually give it to them I think we also pave the way for her to get access to a lot of clients,” added Richard Abbey Jr, one of Decokraft’s clients.

Akua markets her chocolates on social media and online shops as well as selected stores. She plans to expand her business to reach customers in other African countries in future.

Reuters