ANNUAL REPORT 2021/22
In Roald Dhal’s classic tale, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory , five children win golden tickets entitling them to tour Willie Wonka’s mysterious chocolate factory. For UWI’s Cocoa Research Centre, the long dreamed of chocolate factory could itself be the golden ticket to prosperity for the St. Augustine Campus and Trinidad & Tobago’s cocoa industry. Below is an adaptation of the Campus Principal’s UWI Today editorial, to be published in the March 2023 edition of the paper. Thanks to a public sector investment programme (PSIP) from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, The UWI Cocoa Research Centre (CRC) has been provided partial funding for a chocolate factory. It will be located at the University Field Station in Mt Hope as part of the CRC’s International Fine Cocoa Innovation Centre (IFCIC). For many years, The UWI CRC has been working to help revitalise cocoa in the Caribbean and Trinidad and Tobago in particular (Trinidad is internationally renowned for the Trinitario cocoa bean used in premium chocolate products). The plans for the IFCIC include a business incubator facility; a museum of cocoa plants; a cocoa tourism centre; a restaurant, kitchen and labs; a “chocolate academy” for courses in chocolate making; and the chocolate factory.
The factory will be equipped for chocolate- making and manufacturing products such as couverture chocolate (contains a higher percentage of cocoa butter), cocoa liquor, cocoa nibs, and of course chocolate. The factory is expected to be completed by August/September of 2023 and commissioned by early 2024. The chocolate factory, IFCIC, and the CRC itself all represent UWI St Augustine at its best. They are supporting the rejuvenation of a valuable sector that is capable of creating new and lucrative opportunities for international trade. They work with local farmers, manufacturers, and entrepreneurs. They partner with the government. They are a resource of knowledge and an international gene bank of thousands of varieties of cocoa. The CRC is UWI as it was intended to be, making a tangible contribution to national and regional development. Read more about this and other developments on the St. Augustine Campus in the latest issue of UWI Today online or monthly in the Sunday Guardian.
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