COCOA PROCESSING
origin, and a direct supply chain that is entirely controlled by PRONATEC, the company has been able to guarantee the traceability of its products at all times. More recently It has recently started working with an app-based traceability tool, which requires all parties involved recording the path of the beans all the way from the country of origin to the cocoa processing plant, using a barcode via a smart device. Today the plant, which was created and built in collaboration with Bühler, is able to process around 14,000 metric tons of cocoa every year, with guaranteed traceability right through the production process too. Previously, PRONATEC had its organic and fair-trade cocoa beans processed by external contractors into cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, and cocoa powder. “As our business continued to grow our dependence on outside contractors became very high. That’s why we decided to build our own cocoa processing plant,” explains David Yersin, CEO and owner at PRONATEC. with the new plant, a thorough decision-making process was undertaken. “Because we used to have the beans processed by contractors in Europe, we knew the upstream and downstream costs, but we were not familiar with the processing costs,” explains Simon Yersin, Head of Cocoa at PRONATEC. “We received support from Bühler with necessary analyses and information, which enabled us to calculate and assess the entire business concept. This, in turn, helped us to decide in favour of the Swiss location for our plant.”
Automation was a given from the very start of the project,
as PRONATEC works with a batch separation process for
“The growing demand for single origin, low volume
chocolate with an individual taste, makes smaller installations an increasingly more interesting proposition for processors”
the very beginning,” says Joachim Essig, Head of Sales Cocoa & Malt at Bühler. “Fully integrated automation, small-scale batch production, batch separation, and full traceability were important topics in the initial discussions, as was the need for gentle handling of raw materials, food safety, and the highest hygienic design standards.” Today all the planning and production is under PRONATEC’s needs, which is especially important when it comes small batch productions.
In 2022 PRONATEC set up its own organic cocoa roasting processing plant in Switzerland.
16 Kennedy’s Confection April 2023
KennedysConfection.com
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