Salvadoran cocoa makes its way into the Japanese market

Chocolate bars produced in El Salvador are offered on the shelves of the exclusive Godiva store, in the city of Tokyo, Japan.

The Embassy of El Salvador in Japan informed us that chocolate produced in El Salvador is already sold in the city of Tokyo, in the Godiva store.

The diplomatic office informed that the introduction of this Salvadoran product to the Japanese market was supported by the Agro-industrial Crops Value Chain Project (Crevas) developed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in the country.

“Now the residents of this Asian country can taste the goodness of our chocolate, available in Godiva Japan stores”, they indicated through the social network “X”.

In this way, spaces of growth are opened for the cocoa industry of El Salvador, entering new international markets thanks to its quality and cultivation standards.

Godiva is a luxury chocolate brand with a presence in America, Europe, and Asia, and one of its most emblematic stores is the one located in the Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi Main Building, in Tokyo, where Salvadoran chocolate is on sale, sharing shelves with products from other great chocolate countries such as Belgium, Venezuela, Uganda, among others.

“In this way, spaces of growth are opened for the cocoa industry in El Salvador, entering new international markets thanks to its quality and standards of cultivation,” added the Embassy.

Salvadoran cocoa is positioning itself in the world as one of the best, so much so that recently the Salvadoran producer Rafael Moisés Ochoa, from the Varsovia farm, located in La Libertad, won a gold medal in the Cacao Excellence contest, held in the Netherlands, Europe, where he competed against the best 50 cocoa farms worldwide.

The Las Vegas farm in San Vicente won bronze, consolidating a historic participation of the national representatives, since it is the first time in four occasions in which it has participated that it has won a double award.

According to the database of the Central Reserve Bank (BCR), last year El Salvador registered cocoa exports for $6.1 million, and the main buyers were the United States and Guatemala.

Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) is working on the rescue of native cocoa species, which it recognizes as having a strong potential for the international market. The institution details that thanks to these efforts the number of producing families increased from 400 to more than 3,000 producing families in these five years, and that last year’s production amounted to 1,000 metric tons.

Source: Diario El Salvador