A Bright Future for Australian Cacao | The Chocolate Professor

Australia is known for its vast natural beauty, incredible biodiversity, and exceptional food and wine. Now, in northern Queensland, a small group of cacao farmers are also putting it on the map for specialty chocolate.

Testing the water

Despite the heat, Australians eat more chocolate per capita than Germans. The vast majority of chocolate made domestically relies on imported beans, but cacao has grown in Australia since the 1990s. Currently, there are around a dozen small farms, primarily located in northern Queensland, where sugarcane is the dominant crop.

Most of the cacao farms originate from a research program called Producing Cocoa in Northern Australia, which was supported by a group of government departments, universities, and major chocolate producers such as Cadbury’s and Haigh’s. The program tested the viability of growing cacao in several tropical regions of northern Australia. Trinitario cacao plants were imported from Papua New Guinea, and although they grew relatively well, the program was eventually abandoned due to a lack of commercial interest from chocolate makers. A big obstacle was the cost of labor in Australia being much higher than in places like West Africa or Indonesia, where much of Australia’s imported cacao originates.

Opportunity knocks

Cacao growing at The Australian Chocolate Farm

Former pastry chef Darryl Kirk founded The Australian Chocolate Farm in Shannonvale, and he was one of the farmers involved in that research program. In 2009 he answered an ad in the local newspaper that was looking for farmers who were keen to test growing cacao. “We had some spare land that was just long grass,” says Darryl. “Having worked with fine chocolate most of my life, I thought, ‘well, what a great opportunity to not only make it but to grow it right here in my backyard.’”

Kirk was nervous for the first few years as the cacao trees struggled to adapt to the local climate, which has extremely heavy rainfall in summer, along with tropical storms. However, the trees not only survived but thrived, and today he cultivates around 1,800 trees, yielding roughly 800 to 1,000 kilograms of beans annually.

Working on such a small scale enables Kirk to hone his growing and fermenting techniques to perfection, and in 2022 his beans were named in the Top 50 in the World by the Cocoa of Excellence Awards. The exceptional micro-batch chocolate he makes with these beans has won many prestigious awards at home and overseas, but you’ll have to visit the farm if you want to get your hands on some, and if you're keen you can book a tree-to-bar chocolate making tour..

Queensland terroir

Charley's Chocolate Factory cacao and bar

After relocating from Melbourne to Queensland in 2003, Chris Jahnke of Charley’s Chocolate Factory started growing cacao in 2012. Jahnke always liked the idea of a business that involved growing raw ingredients as well as creating the final product. Chocolate seemed like a perfect option.

Charley’s Chocolate Factory offers an impressive range of over 20 bars, including a selection of 'tree-to-bar' chocolate made with beans from Jahnke’s farm near Mt Edna. The range also features four single-origin 70% dark bars, made with beans from four different farms in Queensland. Tasting these bars side by side is a fascinating experience as they all originate from the same cacao genetics, yet each reveals distinct flavours shaped by subtle variations in climate and fermentation. With its notes of whisky and raisin, the Mt Edna bar is the pick of the bunch. The beans used in this bar were also included in the Cocoa of Excellence Top 50 in the World in 2017.

Growth potential

All cacao in Australia is grown on a very small scale, but Jahnke believes there’s a lot of potential for growth, and he’d like to see more farmers embrace it. “It’s a case of convincing people that it’s a commercially viable and profitable way to go,” says Chris. “In a strange, round-about way, all this volatility with increased world prices actually makes growing cocoa in a high labour cost situation like Australia more attractive.”

With such high-quality cacao being produced and labor costs becoming less of an obstacle, the Australian cacao industry has a great opportunity to expand. Beans are in short supply all over the world due to a complex set of issues that include climate change, diseased trees, and increased demand. It’s a problem that is likely to get worse over time, but Australia has an enormous capacity to increase production, and Janke regularly receives requests for beans from both Australian and overseas chocolate makers.

Currently, the main obstacle to growth is local farmers’ lack of appetite for change. “Unfortunately, existing farmers tend to be a fairly conservative lot,” says Chris. The attitude of many farmers is “My grandaddy grew [sugar] cane; my daddy grew cane; I’m gonna grow cane, and my son’s gonna grow cane too.”

Hopefully the increased demand and higher prices can convince more Australian farmers to try growing cacao. If that happens, Australia could become a much more significant player in the global specialty chocolate market, offering a unique, high-quality and ethically grown product to discerning consumers worldwide.

Keen to try Australian single origin chocolate?

Australian chocolate bars — Australian chocolate photo credit Luke Owen Smith

As you might have guessed, it’s not easy to find chocolate made with Australian beans. There are no overseas makers using them, and only a handful within Australia. The best place to order a variety of bars is Bean Bar You – Australia’s premium craft chocolate shop and subscription service. You can also order direct from small-batch chocolate makers such as Alouss, Cabosse & Feve, Chocolate by Peter M, Chocolate D.R. and Wembley’s.