Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Co-operative Ltd. (CAMPCO) has now begun retail sales of its premium assorted chocolates launched two years ago, according to its managing director M. Suresh Bhandary.
Speaking at a “meet-the-press” organised by Dakshina Kannada Union of Working Journalists at Mangaluru Press Club on Tuesday, he said that when launched in 2018, the cooperative sold them in six variants but only in gift boxes.
The six variants were Crunch, Dietier, Funtan, Milk Marvel, Milk n Milk and Ganache. Of these, the cooperative is not manufacturing the latter two now based on feedback. Milk n Milk was white chocolate with rice crispies and Ganache was milk chocolate with cocoa nibs. Their manufacturing have been discontinued.
Shelf life for Milk n Milk was less compared to Milk Marvel. Cocoa nibs in Ganache gave one the experience of crunchy sand, eating it, Mr. Bhandary said and added that these were teh reasons for dropping these variants.
While the Crunch, Dietier, Funtan and Milk Marvel are being sold in retail as a marketing strategy. The four variants are also being sold in gift boxes, he said and added that Crunch is milk chocolate with rice crispies, Dietier is sugar free chocolate, Funtan is dark chocolate and Milk Marvel is a milk chocolate.
“We sold about 300 cases of these assorted chocolate gift boxes each month. Each box had around 12 kg of premium chocolates,” Mr. Bhandary said.
Milk Marvel, Crunch, Dietier and Funtan are in the same league as premier MNC premium chocolates, he said.
Cooperative president S.R. Satishchandra said that the cooperative’s chocolate factory at Puttur resumed operations on April 20 after closing down initially during the lockdown.
The cooperative purchased about 8,000 quintals of wet cocoa beans from farmers during the lockdown, he said.