strikingly minimal design, letting the visual language of craft speak for itself. But design was never meant to be the whole story. In fact, the product itself played a secondary role in this prelaunch. For Mustard, this event was about seeing who intuitively understood what Oumé represents and identifying a community of early believers. In an industry where launches are often formulaic, Oumé’s decision to lead with narrative, identity and emotion — before putting a bar on shelf — is a bold inversion. Oumé, then, is both literal and metaphorical.
It’s a town. It’s a feeling. It’s a belief that products rooted in place, owned by those who know it, and expressed with artistic intention chocolate brands coming from the continent tell that story, with quality, with heritage, and
beholden to commodity market swings. In 2024, the governments of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire increased their farmgate prices by over 50%, responding to supply shortages and growing global demand, but structural inequities remain. The question for new brands like Oumé is how to build something both premium and fair, while truly shifting value back to origin communities. To steer Oumé through that maze, the founders have enlisted Marc Donaldson as cocoa sector, Donaldson is a Senior Partner at On The Ball Consulting and has held senior posts at Barry Callebaut (Managing Petra Foods (President & Director for sustainability programmes in Indonesia. stage in 2025 to outline Oumé’s story, vision and roadmap for its chocolate products. Donaldson’s expertise in commodity economics, consumer product development chocolate can also be a fair one.
KennedysConfection.com
Ferreira said. “We wanted to make something
The team also revealed early concept packaging: slim, monochrome bars wrapped in crisp white paper covered with abstract black linework that echoes the Oumé logotype in a rhythmic, almost musical pattern. Each wrapper bears the brand name boldly. It’s a
The brand is still in its early stages, but its vision is ambitious: premium chocolate, ethically sourced, designed with visual storytelling, and sold globally with proceeds creative industry infrastructure back home. Whether that will meaningfully impact the lives of farmers in Oumé and beyond remains to be seen. But for now, it has sparked interest and curiosity.
L-R Karina Ferreira, Kiran Grewal, Marc Donaldson
Kennedy’s Confection June 2025
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