How Thailand's craft chocolate industry is raising the bar with sustainable practices
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Few would think about Thailand, but the Asian country is emerging as a craft grower with a blossoming bean-to-bar movement.
Thailand's relationship with
cacao has been a long and rocky one.
In the 17th century, Spanish galleons began transporting the crop from
the Philippines to elsewhere in Southeast Asia – to Indonesia, India, Malaysia and finally Thailand, where it arrived in the early 1900s. Yet, unlike its regional neighbours, Thailand never became a major player in the global cocoa trade.
In 1952, the Thai government introduced subsidies to promote cacao as a lucrative export crop. But the initiative faltered as farmers found greater profits in rubber, palm oil and fruit.
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By the 1990s, annual production of cacao had dwindled to just 400 tonnes (440 tons), a drop in the bucket compared with regional giants like Indonesia.
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