4 things you didn't know about Galler chocolate

From the cocoa bean to your favourite chocolate bar, there’s a lot to know! We’ll start with these 4 facts you might not know about Galler chocolate…

1. Galler chocolate has its own identity

You won’t find cocoa beans in our workshops. This first step in chocolate making requires special equipment and true know-how. That’s why we entrust this step to our processor partner. As such, we can focus on our strengths: the filling and transformation of chocolate into a whole range of products.

But this doesn’t mean we buy “standard” chocolate: our chocolate coating is made from our exclusive recipes and according to our specifications. It has its own “identity”, which can vary depending on the intended effect. “For example, with some recipes we use chocolate with either more vanilla or woody notes, with varying degrees of acidity. We also control the sugar and cocoa butter content”, explains Loïc Daemen, Head of R&D at the chocolaterie.

2. Our cocoa is 100% Fairtrade

Cocoais the main ingredient of chocolate. It is produced with cocoa beans, grown mainly in Africa.

In recent decades, a number of investigations have reported on the extremely poor living conditions of cocoa farmers: poverty, child labour, worker exploitation, inequalities, etc.

Fair trade is a means to fight this situation. That’s why, in 2020, we decided to become Fairtrade certified for all the cocoa used to produce our chocolate.

3. Galler supports the Yeyasso cooperative in Côte d’Ivoire.

Created in 2006 by 350 initial members, the Yeyasso cooperative is now comprised of nearly 4,000. It consists of cocoa and coffee producers. Combined, their crop plantations cover an area of nearly 7,000 hectares.

The cooperative is located in the city of Man, nicknamed the “City of 18 mountains”. Thanks to its microclimate, fauna and flora, the region is ideal for growing cocoa.

The members of the cooperative experienced hard times due to political conflicts in the region between 2002 and 2007. Today, the Fairtrade certification allows them to be paid fairly for their work, but also to obtain funds to invest in their projects. It also guarantees that the cooperative meets a series of clearly defined requirements in terms of sustainability, labour conditions, absence of child labour, etc.

Through an agro-forestry project which will benefit Yeyasso, Galler is realising its desire to have a positive impact on all the links in the production chain.

4. Our chocolate is not necessarily made from beans grown in the Yeyasso cooperative, but it ensures its funding as if it were.

In practice, it’s very difficult and costly to implement a system of complete physical traceability for the cocoa beans and the chocolate made from them. This is especially true when the cooperative does not guarantee the processing of the product, as it is the case for Yeyasso.

In order to meet cocoa farmer’s needs, owners of small family plots, Fairtrade (formely Max Havelaar) implemented a system called the “mass balance” system.

An independent auditing agency, FLOCERT, verifies that the quantity of beans used in the Fairtrade-labelled product (in this case Galler chocolate) exactly matches with the quantity of beans purchased from the cooperatives under Fairtrade conditions. It’s what we call administrative traceability. This system ensures that cocoa growers benefit from the advantages of fair trade and the farming practices evolve towards higher sustainability.