“Why don’t you learn to sail, then we can do direct trade?”
That was the challenge from well-known Bougainville cocoa farmer James Rutana to WCF co-founders Gabe Davidson and Rochelle Alagar in 2014.
(Watch a video of WCF's vaka journey)
At the time, most Pacific cocoa was swallowed up by the global commodity market, where distant traders dictated the price and the payout barely kept farmers afloat. Like many growers in Bougainville, James sold his beans through Papua New Guinea’s mainland supply chain.
“There were no real options for direct trade from smaller Pacific islands,” says Gabe. “Growers like James were forced to compete with cocoa from massive producers, many of them operating under questionable labour practices, which helped drive prices even lower.”
James was open to direct trade, but without the infrastructure to move beans out of Bougainville, it was nearly impossible. So he set his challenge.
Gabe and Rochelle took it up. The trip was meant to take six weeks. It took three months, aboard the Uto Ni Yalo, a traditional vaka, battling the elements and navigating vast stretches of ocean. It ended in 2015 with a tonne of James’s cacao sailing into Wellington harbour.
More importantly, it showed us a new way of doing business, built on connection, adventure and heart. That spirit still drives us.
Today, we source the all of our cocoa from the Pacific. We pay our growers directly and publish what we pay, helping build a fairer, more equitable cocoa industry while bringing the bold, beautiful flavours of the Pacific in every bar.
Our new 75% Wayfinder Dark Chocolate bar is the next step in our story. It’s named for the navigators who crossed this ocean long before we tried, and it carries the same idea: the Pacific connects people, and good chocolate can too.
The wrapper tells the story too. Artist Miriama Grace-Smith painted a waka hourua crossing Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, a nod to Pacific voyagers and to the journey Pacific cocoa makes to Aotearoa. The leader at the front can’t move the waka without the crew behind, which is also a fair description of how a chocolate factory works.
Learn more about how your support fuels our commitment to Pacific growers.
