Rome, June 23, 2023 - The highly anticipated Cacao of Excellence Awards Ceremony for the 2023 Edition will take centre stage on February 8th, 2024 in Amsterdam, at the renowned CHOCOA Trade Show, Chocolate Makers’ Forum, Conference and Chocolate Festival during Amsterdam Cocoa Week, uniting the world’s best cacao producers, with bean-to-bar chocolate makers and industry leaders in a celebration of excellence.
The collaboration between Cacao of Excellence and CHOCOA has flourished for the past eight years, marked by successful pilot cacao bean auctions featuring previous Award winners during two CHOCOA Editions. The creators of CHOCOA have consistently focused on promoting sustainable superior quality cacao, aligning perfectly with the values and objectives of Cacao of Excellence and its Awards platform.
The 2024 CHOCOA event will be even more exceptional as it combines with the World Cocoa Foundation's 2024 Annual Partnership Meeting. This convergence will bring together key leaders and stakeholders from across the cacao and chocolate industry during the week-long Amsterdam Cocoa Week, fostering collaboration, networking, and knowledge exchange.
This collaboration is perfectly timed as this year signifies a significant milestone for Cacao of Excellence - full operation of its new Cacao R&D Laboratory and Training Centre. The facility, responsible for processing cacao beans from around the globe for quality and flavour assessment, required additional time to ensure its impeccable functionality and to expand its capacity to process larger quantities of samples. Celebrating in Amsterdam in February 2024 promises an outstanding ceremony, offering a remarkable platform to honour and recognise exceptional cacao producers on a global scale.
The timing of the CHOCOA Trade Show and Chocolate Festival, combined with the World Cocoa Foundation Partnership Meeting and Amsterdam Cocoa Week, is the perfect occasion to celebrate and showcase the global winners of the 2023 Cacao of Excellence Awards. This vibrant marketplace and conference event offers a unique platform for direct interaction between cacao producers and potential buyers, traders, and industry professionals from around the world who prioritise quality and sustainability.
"We are thrilled to hold the Cacao of Excellence 2023 Awards ceremony in Amsterdam during CHOCOA," said Brigitte Laliberté, Acting Director of Cacao of Excellence. “This collaboration provides an exceptional platform for cacao producers and origins to gain recognition, forge valuable connections with market actors, and explore new opportunities. It's a celebration of their hard work, dedication, and commitment to quality and sustainability."
Jack Steijn, Co-Founder of CHOCOA, expressed his excitement about hosting the Cacao of Excellence Awards at CHOCOA, saying, "We are honoured to host this prestigious Award ceremony that celebrates sustainable cacao and exceptional quality. By convening the world’s best cacao producers, chocolate makers, buyers, traders and sector leaders, we are helping to deliver award-winning cacao to the market, fostering innovation and driving positive change in the cacao and chocolate industry."
Stay tuned for updates on this exciting event by visiting the Cacao of Excellence website: www.cacaoofexcellence.org
About the CHOCOA Trade Show and Chocolate Festival:
Chocoa is an annual marketplace for cocoa and chocolate, dedicated to quality and sustainability. It serves as a vibrant platform where cocoa and chocolate are traded, fostering new business contacts and strengthening existing ones. The event provides a space for sharing research results, showcasing new innovations, and exchanging new sustainability ideas and concepts that drive the industry forward. For more information please visit: www.chocoa.nl
In 2024 CHOCOA will be part of Amsterdam Cocoa Week, celebrating a full week of activities focusing on sustainable and quality cacao, bringing international parties together to improve the market.
About Cacao of Excellence:
Cacao of Excellence, led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), is a global platform that discovers, convenes, promotes, and rewards cacao producers of excellence from all origins, focusing on superior cacao quality and flavour diversity. Since 2009, the platform has held the prestigious global Cacao of Excellence Awards, celebrating the work of cacao farmers and showcasing exceptional flavours worldwide. Cacao of Excellence’s vision is to drive the expansion of superior quality cacao, ensuring more producers thrive and benefiting resilient agricultural systems. By recognising, preserving, valuing, and promoting cacao quality and flavour diversity across the value chain, we improve smallholder farmers' livelihoods and drive sustainability in the cacao supply chain, fostering thriving, resilient, and healthy communities, from origins to consumers.
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