Between July 6th and 9th 2024 Katalis, Heuris, and Svara Institute facilitated a ‘market visit’ by a delegation of Indonesian premium bean-to-bar chocolate producers and premium cocoa bean producers to Melbourne Australia.

This market visit consisted of three parts:

(i) Attendance at a pre-visit briefing/workshop in Jakarta immediately prior to the delegation flying to Melbourne;

(ii) Participation in Australia's inaugural Bean to Bar Chocolate Festival (July 6-7), and;

(iii) A series of organised meetings with several of Australia's most successful premium chocolate entrepreneurs (July 8-9).

The Katalis-sponsored delegation included 10 market stakeholders representing 6 Indonesian-based bean-to-bar chocolate makers and 2 premium cocoa producers from Indonesia.

The market visit generated substantial positive outcomes including contributing to learning and capacity building to inform export market access strategies among the participants. The market visit activity improved awareness of the vibrant and rapidly growing premium chocolate/cocoa industry within Indonesia among the Australian and Pacific Island artisan chocolate makers and Australian premium chocolate consumers. Some specific outcomes include:

• Increased ‘brand’ exposure for Indonesian premium chocolate with the festival attracting a large (sell-out) crowd providing an excellent opportunity to showcase the country’s range of premium chocolate and cocoa bean products to an audience focused on high quality artisan chocolate.
• Creation of valuable networking opportunities. Beyond the specific organised meetings, the six chocolate makers and two cocoa producers connected with industry professionals, suppliers, distributors, consumers and potential partners across Australia and the Pacific Islands.
• Demonstration of the Indonesia’s cocoa bean and chocolate diversity, deepening the visitors’ appreciation for the range of flavours across the archipelago. This outcome is an important contribution to remaking Indonesia’s reputation as a non-fermenting, low-quality, commodity producing country dominated by the large chocolate companies.