Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem do you solve?
Hendrik Reimers, Fairafric: 75% of the world’s cocoa comes from West Africa, but less than 1% of chocolate is produced there. We’re changing that by producing chocolate directly where cocoa is grown – in Ghana. This creates qualified jobs and multiplies Africa’s income per chocolate bar. We’ve built the world’s first solar-powered organic chocolate factory and have created nearly 100 jobs so far. With our vision “Use business to end poverty”, we’re strongly committed to SDG 1 “Fight poverty”. Our goal: creating 10,000 climate-friendly jobs on the African continent.
Fairafric: truly fair chocolate
Munich Startup: But that already exists!
Hendrik Reimers: Not directly. Of course, there are many “fair” chocolates on the market, but you have to look closely at why they’re labeled as “fair”. Normally, the chocolate is still produced in the Global North: cocoa beans are exported and processed into chocolate here.
Not with us! The chocolate arrives fully packaged in Germany and we distribute it in Europe. This way, we increase local income per chocolate bar in Ghana by more than 400%. While a chocolate bar made in Europe leaves about €0.13 in cocoa-producing countries, Fairafric pays €0.74! Moreover, for us, being “fair” means being just to people and nature. Our chocolates are organic-certified, plastic-free packaged, and produced climate-neutrally.
Munich Startup: What’s your founding story?
Hendrik Reimers: In 2013, I was traveling in East Africa and I saw how agriculture and poverty are connected. I was driven by the question of why raw materials are always only exported from Africa and not processed in their country of origin. Driven by this idea, I focused on cocoa and chocolate, traveled to Ghana, met people working in the industry. In 2016, we launched our first crowdfunding campaign, where we offered Fairafric chocolate, made in Ghana, for the very first time.
Financing through bonds and chocolate vouchers
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Hendrik Reimers: Financing has been and remains very challenging, as many institutions don’t invest in Africa. But more than 2,000 private investors stand by our side and have proven that everything is possible together: in 2020, we built our own solar-powered factory in rural Ghana, right next to the cocoa plantations in just five and a half months. Despite the pandemic, we managed to build infrastructure, hire a team, and our dream of our own chocolate factory came true.
Munich Startup: How is business going?
Hendrik Reimers: The pandemic and inflation unfortunately didn’t spare our sales in recent years. Through financial products like a bond or the chocolate voucher – a loan where interest is paid out in chocolate – we give our community the opportunity to revolutionize the chocolate world with us. We’re continuously developing Fairafric and bringing new products like Drops, Fruit Balls, and more surprises to market this year.
Since launching our factory, we’ve increased sales by more than 150% and now want to gradually improve utilization to reach our capacity of 50 million bars per year. We reach break-even at just 15% utilization. That’s what we want to achieve in the coming years.
Chocolate is just the beginning
Munich Startup: Where do you want to be in one year, where in five?
Hendrik Reimers: With our new business fields of contract manufacturing and semi-finished products, we produce both finished chocolate products and chocolate for further processing for existing brands. This way, we want to revolutionize the chocolate industry and establish “Made in Africa” as a new industry standard. Long-term, we want to launch our own agroforestry project, for example, and grow sustainable cocoa in direct partnership with our farmers, sequestering more CO2 in the soil than we emit throughout the entire value chain. Chocolate is just the beginning. There are many products where value creation doesn’t yet exist in West Africa, such as cashew nuts.
Our concept is transferable to many raw materials from the African continent!
Munich Startup: Outsource or do it yourself?
Hendrik Reimers: Do it ourselves in Ghana to build infrastructure there, give people jobs, and have the greatest possible impact in the country. We want to ensure a completely sustainable value chain and maximize its potential. This requires the closest possible partnership and our own commitment throughout all steps. Delegating responsibility to others is therefore not an option for us. We want to lead by positive example and set a new standard for the entire industry.
