Cocoa farming

Cathliro Commodities Development Limited (CCDL) is attending Auckland’s Pasifika Festival under the Pacific Islands Trade & Invest (PT&I) Pacific Path to Market programme.

PT&I hosted its Pacific Path to Market programme in the Solomon Islands last year and from the workshops identified a group of companies capable of exporting to New Zealand.

CCDL is a cocoa producing company, locally owned and managed by Diana Yates.   The company has been in operation for 6 years.  It has 30 employees. Its main business activity is exporting cocoa beans to Malaysia.

Back in early 2000, with limited knowledge of modern farming techniques or farm management skills, Moli planted 300 cocoa plants, but the plants did not flourish as he had hoped.

He hadn’t maintained the plantation or harvested cocoa since 2007. His cocoa plantation was overgrown and he couldn’t distinguish between the cocoa plants and other trees. In September 2015, he harvested approximately 5kg and the same amount in February 2016.