NEWS
GreenTalk with ZotterBack to News
23 Sep 2021
What inspired you to create a Fairtrade and Organic accredited range of chocolates?
Chocolate is a work of passion as well as passionately loved by most people. From the care of the cacao tree seedling, the harvest at the exact right moment, fermentation to the point of perfection all the way to roasting, grinding & conching to highlight the flavours – it all involves dedication and love for the product. If only one link in this chain fails, the resulting chocolate won’t be as good as it can be. So, also from a quality standpoint it makes a lot of sense to make sure that everyone involved receives their fair share of pricing: good money for good work. Fair trading practices help ensure that the cacao production chain is socially sustainable, which also benefits the consumer in creating a guilt-free tasting experience of the chocolate they love. It is just as important to ensure that the chocolate is produced ecologically sustainable, especially cacao grows in regions that are often hardest hit by the effects of climate change. Organic & fair is, however, not limited to cacao, of course. Sugar, milk, nuts and all the other ingredients that create our favourite chocolate flavours must all be sustainably sourced to make it all work. Thus, passion for the product allows for a passionate tasting experience.
What were the main challenges you faced in order to get it launched; and are you still facing these challenges today?
We converted our entire assortment to 100% organic & fair back in 2003/4, making us one of the very first chocolate companies to do so. Back then many ingredients were not available as certified organic. We changed to organic because that’s what we, as a family business, wanted for us. It took a little while to explain to our customers back then, inform about the need for fair trading practices ... luckily a lot has changed in perception of organic & fair since then. We’re currently ranked #7 among Austria’s strongest/ most likeable brands and a lot of that image is also owed to us being a social enterprise.
What were the most memorable, defying moments during this time?
Once we decided to shift to organic we had to lose half of our assortment as it was, since we couldn’t get all the ingredients in organic, plus the other chocolates changed in flavour...so that took a bit of getting used to. A memorable moment was the first visitors we received from our first partner cooperative in Nicaragua, they stayed with us for 2 weeks, producing chocolate alongside our staff, playing football matches with us ... these 2 weeks were special for them and us, connecting through each other through cacao.
What helped you to see it through to the end?
Our chocolate didn’t just become different but better, and our customer realized that pretty soon. We were the first fully organic, fair and bean-to-bar chocolate company around, so once people started to understand us, they also started to love us. We created the Chocolate Theatre, which is our factory tour experience, to share knowledge about organic & fair. It has been very enthusiastically received. We’re currently ranked #7 among Austria’s strongest/ most likeable brands and a lot of that image is also owed to us being a social enterprise.
What are your plans for the next 5 years?
Energy conservation is one of our big goals for the next years: we already use our own resources to cover 64% of our energy needs (wood for heat, heat exchangers to reuse the heat of our production, solar panels for electricity). The goal is to further increase that to 80-90% in the next few years.
www.zotter.at
Chocolate is a work of passion as well as passionately loved by most people. From the care of the cacao tree seedling, the harvest at the exact right moment, fermentation to the point of perfection all the way to roasting, grinding & conching to highlight the flavours – it all involves dedication and love for the product. If only one link in this chain fails, the resulting chocolate won’t be as good as it can be. So, also from a quality standpoint it makes a lot of sense to make sure that everyone involved receives their fair share of pricing: good money for good work. Fair trading practices help ensure that the cacao production chain is socially sustainable, which also benefits the consumer in creating a guilt-free tasting experience of the chocolate they love. It is just as important to ensure that the chocolate is produced ecologically sustainable, especially cacao grows in regions that are often hardest hit by the effects of climate change. Organic & fair is, however, not limited to cacao, of course. Sugar, milk, nuts and all the other ingredients that create our favourite chocolate flavours must all be sustainably sourced to make it all work. Thus, passion for the product allows for a passionate tasting experience.
What were the main challenges you faced in order to get it launched; and are you still facing these challenges today?
We converted our entire assortment to 100% organic & fair back in 2003/4, making us one of the very first chocolate companies to do so. Back then many ingredients were not available as certified organic. We changed to organic because that’s what we, as a family business, wanted for us. It took a little while to explain to our customers back then, inform about the need for fair trading practices ... luckily a lot has changed in perception of organic & fair since then. We’re currently ranked #7 among Austria’s strongest/ most likeable brands and a lot of that image is also owed to us being a social enterprise.
What were the most memorable, defying moments during this time?
Once we decided to shift to organic we had to lose half of our assortment as it was, since we couldn’t get all the ingredients in organic, plus the other chocolates changed in flavour...so that took a bit of getting used to. A memorable moment was the first visitors we received from our first partner cooperative in Nicaragua, they stayed with us for 2 weeks, producing chocolate alongside our staff, playing football matches with us ... these 2 weeks were special for them and us, connecting through each other through cacao.
What helped you to see it through to the end?
Our chocolate didn’t just become different but better, and our customer realized that pretty soon. We were the first fully organic, fair and bean-to-bar chocolate company around, so once people started to understand us, they also started to love us. We created the Chocolate Theatre, which is our factory tour experience, to share knowledge about organic & fair. It has been very enthusiastically received. We’re currently ranked #7 among Austria’s strongest/ most likeable brands and a lot of that image is also owed to us being a social enterprise.
What are your plans for the next 5 years?
Energy conservation is one of our big goals for the next years: we already use our own resources to cover 64% of our energy needs (wood for heat, heat exchangers to reuse the heat of our production, solar panels for electricity). The goal is to further increase that to 80-90% in the next few years.
www.zotter.at
