BUKA (ABG GOVT) – Hundreds of cocoa farmers across Bougainville, families and international chocolatiers have all begun arriving in Buka for this year’s Bougainville Chocolate Festival – expected to be the biggest one yet.
President Dr John Momis will officially launch the two day Festival of activities and competitions at Hutjena Oval in Buka on Friday, the capital of Bougainville.
This year’s festival activities include competitions for farmers, such as the Big Bean Competition and Big Pod Competition. The highlight Chocolate competition has generated record levels of interest with farmers submitting their cocoa beans from as far as remote Nissan Island and Torokina in South Bougainville.
There will also be a community Baking Competition plus demonstrations of the chocolate making process by the ABG Department of Primary Industries. The PNG Cocoa Board will be displaying cocoa fermentation.
Festival co-chair and Secretary for Economic Development, Steven Tsivele says this year has seen a record number of cocoa farmers participating and also a growing level of interest from chocolate makers around the world.
“One of the biggest aims of the Bougainville Chocolate Festival is to increase international exposure to the resurgent production of quality Bougainville cocoa. I want to congratulate our farmers for their hard work and commitment in ensuring that we achieve this aim together,” Tsivele said.
While the festival will have a special focus on educating farmers to improve cocoa production quality with films, seminars and displays, it will also be fun for children and families with games, entertainment activities and chocolate tasting –with the assessment made by international judges.
There will also be a display by the 2017 gold medallists’ farmers of their award winning chocolate to the public.
The Bougainville Chocolate Festival is an initiative of the Autonomous Bougainville Government with the support of the governments of Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand..
