Press Release

    Twenty Degrees launch brings specialty cacao to craft chocolate makers

    Press release

    London

    Today marks the launch of Twenty Degrees, a new specialty cacao business sourcing premium quality cacao beans from around the world. The new venture is backed by Olam Cocoa, one of the world’s leading suppliers of cocoa beans and cocoa ingredients.

    The premium chocolate market has seen significant growth in recent years as consumers become more interested in the provenance of their food and increasingly seek out high quality, artisanal products with a unique flavour and story. Twenty Degrees – named for the cacao belt which ranges twenty degrees north and south of the equator – is responding by sourcing premium quality cacao beans from ten unique regions, each hand-picked for their distinctive flavour and sensory profile.

    The business will unlock opportunities for farmers by bringing single origin cacao beans to market that are either too specialist or too remote to be sold to mainstream manufacturers. From cacao grown in the highland Simbu region of Papua New Guinea, to beans farmed by the indigenous Eperara community in Ecuador’s coastal rainforest, a community only accessible by boat. A team of agronomists will work with each community to make sure the quality and flavour of its cacao meets the highest standards.

    The Twenty Degrees business model is built on positive partnerships with farmers and customers. It is helping farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices and investing in the growth and security of the communities it works with. This also allows it to provide customers with new levels of transparency and traceability right back to the farm gate, so chocolate makers can know everything about the cacao beans they buy, from the farmers who grew them to the carbon footprint of the crop.

    Leopold Palmer, Business Head, Twenty Degrees, said:

    “We’re on a mission to change the way we think about premium cacao. We’re exploring new territories and discovering fresh terroirs in established growing regions, uncovering unique cacao beans farmed to the highest quality with the greatest possible positive impact. And we’re doing this in a way that is transparent, traceable and delivers quality, consistency and taste to meet the needs of craft chocolate makers.”

    Twenty Degrees will be led by an entrepreneurial new team but draw on the expertise and operational strength of Olam Cocoa, one of the industry-leading businesses under Olam Food Ingredients (OFI). Twenty Degrees benefits from Olam Cocoa’s long-standing experience in cocoa sustainability and from the insight and expertise of its dedicated flavour lab in the Netherlands, which will test the specialty cacao beans and help to bring out their unique flavour, smell and texture.

    Commenting on the launch, Gerard A. Manley, CEO of Olam Cocoa concluded:

    “With Twenty Degrees, we are combining our knowledge of cocoa farming and our capability to source from distant and often remote communities with a greater focus on flavour differentiation. It will leverage our existing presence to drive sustainable farming practices and support livelihoods as part of Cocoa Compass, our sustainability ambition for the future of the industry. We are building on our wider Olam Food Ingredients offering to provide natural, value-added ingredients that positively impact people and the planet. With the benefit of our knowledge and scale, Twenty Degrees will create something truly unique in the specialty market.”

    The Twenty Degrees range of premium cacao beans is available now in the USA and Europe and can be delivered anywhere in the world. To find out more about the business and each of the ten origins, visit: https://twentydegreescacao.com/ or follow activity on LinkedIn and Instagram

    About Twenty Degrees

    Twenty Degrees is a new specialty bean business that is passionate about cacao, where and how it is grown and who is growing it. It invests in building partnerships with farmers in both the established and undiscovered terroirs of the Cocoa Belt, the narrow zone that lies between 20°N and 20°S of the Equator. Using cutting edge technology Twenty Degrees can provide total transparency of supply chain to create mutual benefit for farmers and customers alike and to work towards entirely offsetting the carbon footprint of its cacao. Its plant science and flavour experts examine the unique characteristics and sensory profile of each type of cacao in its portfolio, developing protocols for growing, harvesting, drying and fermenting to extract maximum flavour.

     

    About Olam Cocoa

    Olam Cocoa, part of Olam Food Ingredients, is a leading supplier of cocoa beans and cocoa ingredients (cocoa powder, cocoa butter and cocoa liquor) and ranks amongst the top three processors worldwide. As part of its sustainability ambition, Cocoa Compass, it has achieved 100% traceability of its global, direct origination cocoa supply chain. Olam Cocoa sources from all major origins across Africa, Asia and South America, and has a cocoa processing, milling and refining presence in, or adjacent to, primary consumption markets in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Supplying to over 2,000 customers globally, Olam Cocoa is a close collaborative partner in their innovation and product development programmes. Its portfolio of ingredient brands is led by deZaan, with its heritage of more than 100 years of excellence, as well as African origin brand Unicao, South American origin brand Joanes, the regional Macao and Huysman cocoa powder brands, BT Cocoa in Indonesia, and Britannia confectionery and specialty fats brand.

     

    About Olam Food Ingredients

    Olam Food Ingredients (OFI) is a new operating group born out of Olam International. OFI offers sustainable, natural, value-added food products and ingredients so that consumers can enjoy the healthy and indulgent products they love. It consists of Olam’s industry-leading businesses of Cocoa, Coffee, Edible Nuts, Spices and Dairy.

    OFI has built a unique global value chain presence including its own farms, farm-gate origination and manufacturing facilities. OFI partners with customers, leveraging its complementary and differentiated portfolio of “on-trend” food products, to co-create solutions that anticipate and meet changing consumer preferences as demand increases for healthier food that’s traceable and sustainable.

    Olam International is headquartered and listed in Singapore and currently ranks among the top 30 largest primary listed companies in terms of market capitalisation on SGX-ST.

    To subscribe to the Olam Newsroom please click here (privacy statement here). If you do not wish to receive information from Olam please contact media@olamnet.com.

    More information on Olam can be found at www.olamgroup.com. Olam is located at 7 Straits View, Marina One East Tower #20-01,Singapore 018936, Telephone: +65 63394100, Facsimile: +6563399755.

    For further information, please contact:
    • Emma Blinkhorn
    • Communications Manager
    • Emma.blinkhorn@olamnet.com
    • Katie Graham
    • Teneo
    • +447899 908483
    • olam@teneo.com

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