Dark Milk Chocolate Bars Help to Unlock Wealth in West Africa
What will you do in high school that will inspire your future choices? For Steve Wallace, an exchange student trip to Africa as a teenager ultimately resulted in him starting Ghana-based Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co., a unique chocolate bar business that treats employees like family. He shares his journey in his new book, Obroni and the Chocolate Factory, An Unlikely Story of Globalization and Ghana’s First Gourmet Chocolate Bar. Wallace visited our sister publication Knowledge@Wharton to discuss his book and how he hopes Ghana can reap more benefits from the cocoa value chain.
Knowledge@Wharton: How did a young man from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, end up starting a company in Ghana?
Steve Wallace: In high school in 1978, I had been selected for a foreign exchange scholarship on a program called AFS, and I was sent to the town of Sunyani, Ghana. I was placed with this remarkable host family. My host father had three wives and 21 children, and I took my place as child 22.
The town happened to be at the northern edge of the cocoa growing part of Ghana. In any given year, Ghana is the largest or second-largest cocoa-producing country in the world, trading with the Ivory Coast. That summer was transformative for me. We had a coup, a military takeover of the government. The economy was a shambles at the time, so I had a firsthand seat at an emerging democracy. I saw what it was like for a post-colonial country to begin to move forward into both democracy and a reinvigoration of its own economy.
That’s where the affection for Ghana came from, and all the rest of the business was in some ways an excuse to go back to a place that I loved. I wanted to bring my small business knowledge to that country and see if we could play some small, modest role as it began to transition from a colony to a first-world economy.
Knowledge@Wharton: Although Ghana produced cocoa, there really wasn’t production of chocolate, correct?
Wallace: That’s right. They were really comfortable at what would be called the very bottom rung of the cocoa value chain: growing the beans. Ghana probably exports $2 billion to $2.5 billion of raw beans a year. If you were to ask people where good chocolate comes from, they might say Switzerland or Belgium or France. My first question was, how many cocoa trees grow in Zurich? The answer was none. I began to think, why is it that a country so primary in the growing of the world’s finest cocoa is not enjoying the fruits of the benefits of the cocoa value chain, and why didn’t they move upstream to create chocolate? I wanted to put some assets against that and see if we could actually manufacture export-grade chocolate that could compete in the world markets.
Knowledge@Wharton: I tried the sample of your dark milk chocolate, and it was tasty. What is dark milk chocolate?
Wallace: I didn’t realize until I got into the business that dark chocolate is a definition of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It refers to the minimum amount of cocoa liquor, which is the nonalcoholic essence of the bean. The cocoa liquor is what gives us the aroma, the addictive quality, the euphoric quality of chocolate. If you have a minimum percent, you get to call yourself a dark chocolate. It’s different in every country. Switzerland, for example, has a far higher threshold. A dark chocolate in the U.S. wouldn’t qualify as dark in Switzerland.
I thought the American palate was maturing and they wanted more profound and intense chocolate than the real sweet chocolates that probably you and I grew up with. I wanted to more than double the cocoa content needed to call yourself a dark chocolate in the U.S., so that’s what we did. We also used full cream milk to take a little bit of the bitterness, which is inherent in cocoa liquor, off the edge. The FDA said, “Well, if you put a drop of milk in, you either have to call it a milk dark chocolate or a dark milk chocolate.” So, we really invented a brand new category of chocolate called dark milk chocolate.
Knowledge@Wharton: Your company takes care of its employees. Tell us about that.
Wallace: I had grown up in a series of family businesses, and they were small business endeavors. The ethic of treating your employees well, in the sense of you’re a steward for people’s lives and livelihood, was ingrained with me. On a practical sense, what I realized was that Ghana certainly had the human talent and the raw materials to make fine chocolate. What I think was lacking was the ability to market, brand, create recipes and get hold of the trade craft that was necessary to export chocolate into high-value markets. I needed to spend a lot of time both in Ghana setting up the production and, most importantly, abroad selling the chocolate. If I’m going to be in the United States selling the chocolate, I wanted to make sure everybody was happy.
I think happy workers, workers who feel it matters that they show up to work and that they’re well cared for, are more productive. For me, it was a productivity issue and a sustainability issue because I didn’t want to have to keep re-training and re-hiring. We try to find good people and take care of them well, and we’ll all create wealth together.
Knowledge@Wharton: How have the workers benefited?
Wallace: Ghana’s government has a Ghana cocoa port, which is really a vertically integrated overseer of the whole cocoa industry. They had an ethic of wanting to take care of workers, too. The cocoa farmers, for example, represent the middle class of Ghana. They represented very significant voting blocs, so politically it was important to take care of everyone. When I conceived of the company, these notions of taking good care of workers and the things we do was not such a huge difference. This was met not with surprise but sort of an expectation that this is how you do things in West Africa, or at least within Ghana’s cocoa sector.
At our production facility, there’s an on-site medical clinic with a doctor for all the workers and their families. There’s a commissary, so they get free lunches. They have free uniforms. All the workers are shareholders in the factory. Again, this is trying to align our economic interest. I wasn’t going to create wealth if I was exploiting or just trying to arbitrage cheap labor. I thought, what we have to do is create a very unique and compelling flavor profile and a freshness imperative for our chocolate. That’s what we’re going to compete on, not having the lowest cost of production in the world. Because frankly, I don’t.
Knowledge@Wharton: Where is your chocolate exported?
Wallace: It comes to the United States, and we export it to Japan. Those are our two big export markets. We’ve done some smaller work in Canada and the United Kingdom for some ingredient work. We sell in dozens of states. We do a lot of independent retailers, grocery store work, Whole Foods work. But it’s primarily independent retailers of various sorts that really love our product and use it both at retail and behind the counter in recipes.
Knowledge@Wharton: In the book, you said you learned a lot from both your dad and host dad.
Wallace: I think the book’s a lot of a celebration of fathers and what we can learn. I learned from my father the flexibility that’s needed, the ability to set aside your own ego and excite people about your business idea and involve them in meaningful ways in your company.
My host father was a remarkable man. He had cobbled together an independent business world, a little constellation of companies at a time when 85% of all the jobs in Ghana were government jobs. You worked for a ministry or a local regional government or something. The rest of the 15% of the people were largely farmers. The idea of people working in their own business was really quite a foreign concept. He had half interest in a Ford tractor, which he would lease out to people. He had imported a couple of small Toyota Corollas he used as taxis. He had some interest in farming and raised chickens and rabbits. He did all sorts of small businesses but found ways to commercialize them. He also had a world vision. He was kind enough to open his family to me and welcome me in at a time when food was scarce and the economy wasn’t strong. He really thought there was a big world out there that even he, up in Sunyani, Ghana, could compete in and play a role in. He had wonderful enthusiasm for the world. As opposed to being scared of globalism, he embraced it, as improbable as it was. I think that kind of inculcated with me an enthusiasm for business that I hope I carry with me to this day.
Knowledge@Wharton: Do you think you could replicate what you have done in Ghana in other parts of the world?
Wallace: Oh, absolutely. I would love to. I think it’s easy to say in the abstract, figure out what it is that your country does best. Countries often look back and figure out what it is they do best, and it’s sort of historic. Are you a dairy state? Are you a manufacturing state? The hard work is articulating what it is that, indeed, you are best at. Not what you wish you were best at, not what historically you were best at, but what are you good at now?
When people come to me and say, “Our country grows the best tomatoes in the world,” let’s look at it. Are there other crops that grow as well with tomatoes that maybe have a better economic advantage or less competition? I really try to tear apart and get at it because when Adam Smith and David Ricardo talked about what makes a country unique, it wasn’t just a casual use of the word. The hope is you can articulate what’s in your soil, where your micro-climate or your education system or your topography gives your country some real, articulated, competitive advantage in the world? That can take a long process. I think it’s too easy to fall into the easy answer.
Knowledge@Wharton: Are there parts of your operation that you want to improve, not necessarily from the business perspective but with the relationship with the workers?
Wallace: You are always looking at self-improvement for the company, for all those involved with the company and for the environment we work in, which is the country of Ghana. Ghana was knocking at the door of what global economists call middle-income status, moving up from poverty to middle-income status. This was a hugely celebrated occurrence. I’d like to think we can help play a part of that.
If you’re a former colony, your economy was based on extractive industry. There was gold. Ghana used to be called the gold coast, for example. Or it was cocoa or gas and oil. Things are lifted out of the ground and shipped abroad for profits. As long as the price of cocoa was a dollar less than the world price, or the quality was a little better than world quality, people just line up and take your goods. You really didn’t have to sell them. I’d like Ghana to get to the point where we realize that creating brands, creating products with raw materials, will unlock quite a bit of wealth for that country.
It’s scary because some of those investments will fail, and it’s a government that really can’t afford to fail. On the other hand, I would tell them to do nothing is a choice as well. Over time, there have to be some institutional investments in an enabling environment that will allow these experiments in moving up value chains to take place. Right now, one of my focuses is trying to articulate and advocate for that case.
Knowledge@Wharton: Have you heard from other companies interested in your kind of business model?
Wallace: I think a business school’s professors will often tell you that sometimes first-movers bear a disproportionate amount of the cost of educating a market about a new way of doing things. I suspect we were that first-mover 26 years ago in terms of we were the first single-origin chocolate bar.
I was giving a speech at a university and a classmate of mine, who happened to be editor of Fast Company magazine, featured a competitor of ours on the cover. I emailed him and I said, “I wish your journalist had found out that we were doing single-origin manufacture of chocolate in Africa two decades before the company you happened to feature on the cover.” He wrote an email back that said, in so many words, “Steve, if I had a magazine called Slow Company, you’d be on the cover.”
I like to celebrate the long-term satisfaction of companies that aren’t made, built, bought and sold within five to seven years in a venture capital model. There’s a lot of satisfaction in running a company, creating jobs and trying to tackle difficult and intractable problems over time. I think there’s a difference between making money and creating wealth. I’ve always been more interested in creating wealth over time, which is really sustainability. In emerging markets, like many of the African markets, it takes that long-term commitment. There aren’t going to be quick wins, or very few.
Related Links
- Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co.
- Chocolate Class
- Rival Candy Projects Both Parse Cocoa’s DNA
- Recipes with Omanhene Chocolate
- NBC News: Chocolate Is a Bittersweet Way of Life in Ghana
- Omanhene and Fair Trade
- Steven Charles Wallace: Tedx Accra Talk
- Omanhene on Facebook
Conversation Starters
Who is Steve Wallace and why did he choose Ghana to start his business? What personal and economic factors influenced that decision?
Steve Wallace says, “I’d like Ghana to get to the point where we realize that creating brands will unlock quite a bit of wealth for that country.” Why is making chocolate in Ghana such a revolutionary concept? How does this relate to the cocoa value chain?
While Steve Wallace’s business model supports people and families in West Africa, the cocoa bean industry does have a darker side. Using the Related Links accompanying this article, explore the fair trade and human-centered issues surrounding cocoa production in Ghana and other countries.
What experience from high school could inspire your future choices?
I thought that this article was very cool. I love chocolate so this article hooked me right away. This guy makes chocolate and travels the world for a living. I want to do that!
I think that making chocolate , and doing this around the world and becoming very wealthy, is a good idea and a great thing to do. It seems fun , and you get paid for it and you can see how to make chocolate.
i think that it is so good of him to do this especially in his home country it is so good, that he gets to travel also and do what he wants to do. chocolate is a great industry to get into so i totally think this is the best idea.
I agree with Kegham I think that it is fascinating how he started his own company in his own country. I would have loved to started my own chocolate company in my country especially because I love the place where I came from and everything around it but also chocolate is my favorite dessert.
I agree with Breanna. Chocolate is one of my favorite candies to eat and milk chocolate is definitely the best in my opinion. The fact that this man started his own business, in a country where doing such an thing was completely foreign, is incredible. Especially because of the fact that he didn’t let other people stop him from making a difference within society by taking the lead. Also, the fact that his business is worldwide and he gets to travel a lot is really cool.
Steve Wallace is an exchange student who started his Ghana-based business,the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co. He chose Ghana to start the business because of his affection and interest for the country. The personal and economic factors that influence Steve’s decision are that he witnessed the country as an emerging democracy, and that it was reinvigorating its own economy. Steve Wallace is making chocolate in Ghana as a revolutionary concept because the people of Ghana were already used to making cocoa beans. This relates to the cocoa value chain because the people would be comfortable with making the cocoa beans. Some experiences from high school that could inspire your future choices are the classes you take that interest you.
I agree that high school classes can help inspire future choices. I can imagine that Wallace was inspired by his classes which helped him create his company, not to mention his love for the country.
I think this company that directly imports goods from Africa is the start to try to reverse the devastating impact that imperialism had on this country. Many other first world nations economies have been flourishing off of Africa agricultural riches for many centuries. I strongly believe that Steve’s company is the start for Africa to get credit for their goods that has been stolen from them.
I agree with what Christian Guerrero says. His love for the country is what made him want to go back and start this business. Steve talks about how every country is known for something and Ghana should be to. Both his host father and real father helped him a lot. His host father who he had stayed with in Ghana had experience when it came to business. His host father had little business’ on the side since most of them were ran by government which helped Steve with plenty advice.
Steve Wallace is an exchange student. He chose Ghana because he had an interest in the country. He witnessed the country as an emerging democracy, which influenced his decision.
Steve is making chocolate there because he knew that is it something common in Ghana to make coco beans. This is relatable to the coco value chain because people will be comfortable making cocoa beans.
In my school there are many different classes and many different clubs. One of my classes or my clubs could inspire me because I can do what I like to do during my class/club.
In High School there are many experiences that can affect you path in life. It could be as simple as a teacher or as complicated as a suspension or a fight. Most experiences in High School can be learned and improved on. Some teachers are really good and can affect you career path. For example if my finance teacher is really good it can affect what you think of the topic and maybe send you to a career in that path. Another example can be if you hate a subject and your teachers makes it easy to understand, it can make you change opinions on that topic.
Steve Wallace was a man who decided to start the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co. after an exchange to Ghana as a student. He chose to start his business in Ghana because he had a special interest in the country and saw many opportunities. Personal and economic factors that may have influenced his decision are that he got to see first hand that the country was trying to move forward into a democracy and by also reinvigorating it’s own economy. Steve Wallace making chocolate in Ghana is a revolutionary concept because it is the largest or second largest cocoa producing country in the world and it should be able to reap the benefits of it’s produce. He wanted his company to play at least a small modest role as it began to transition from a colony to a first-world economy. This relates to the cocoa value chain because Steve wanted to change the fact that they were only the bottom of the chain when they could do so much more than grow beans. An experience from high school that could inspire your future choices is volunteering or doing an internship through your school.
Nice job, Catalina! I can tell you really read the article carefully and learned about many of the business concepts. Did you enjoy reading about Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co and Steve Wallace? I found this story really inspiring, especially his business model of helping his employees in different ways. Thanks for your comment!
KWHS
Hi Catalina, I like how you mentioned that Steve Wallace truly cares about Ghana and how Ghana produces so many cocoa beans. This made me realize that he really wants Ghana to move up the cocoa value chain rather than staying at the bottom rung exporting cocoa beans. The way he proposes to do this is by manufacturing the chocolate in Ghana and then export rather than immediately exporting the beans to major chocolate producing countries such as Belgium or Switzerland. This would also reduce the fluctuating prices of cocoa and allow the opportunity costs to be captured offshore rather than in Ghana. I traveled to Switzerland last year and tasted so many heavenly chocolates, all with fancy brand names and designs. But after reading this article, I realized that the cocoa isn’t coming from Switzerland; it’s coming from countries who grow cocoa trees and gather the beans.
What I found very interesting about Steve’s company is that he treats the people working in his business like family just like how his host father treated him when he first came to Ghana as an exchange student. He wants to end the unfair exploitation of cocoa bean workers, promote a sustainable environment, and make sure that the workers and their families are happy and have enough money and other resources. He is preserving Ghana’s culture and sharing it with the world by having the packaging of the chocolates be of a royal Ghanaian design.
However, there are several issues that Steve must take into consideration. With over 25 million people to feed and a very high poverty rate, simply starting one chocolate business won’t be enough to significantly improve the situation. And to top that, there are issues within the cocoa industry itself. Fewer people, especially those who are young, want to pursue cocoa farming as a career path, as they are attracted to urban lifestyles and better education. Villages where the farming occurs have very low standards of living. There are poor schools and no hospitals. And what about the competition? There are several appealing chocolate brands already out there.
Despite the challenges that exist, I think that Steve’s idea is great. He is doing a phenomenal job growing his business while helping a country in need!
Steve Wallace was an exchange student in Ghana who founded the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co. He chose Ghana as the location to start his business because of his affection for the country and witnessing of an emerging democracy. Making chocolate in Ghana is a revolutionary concept as many of the people there are already used to producing cocoa beans and should be able to reap their benefits which connects to the cocoa value chain as they are comfortable with the process. The cocoa bean industry in Africa has had many negative human centered issues such as child labor and overworking. For me, taking DECA courses and competing has inspired me to study business in college and hopefully work in the industry later on.
Steve Wallace is a man from Ghana who started his chocolate business called the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co. Since he was born in Ghana he chose to start the business there. The whole idea of making chocolate in Ghana is revolutionary because Ghana is highly known for making cocoa beans but not chocolate. This relates to the cocoa value chain because the people would be comfortable with making the cocoa beans. You can take certain classes in high school that might inspire your future choices.
Steve Wallace is a man from Ghana who started his chocolate business called the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co. Since he was born in Ghana he chose to start the business there. The whole idea of making chocolate in Ghana is revolutionary because Ghana is highly known for making cocoa beans but not chocolate. This could relate to the cocoa value chain because the people who are making the chocolate are already used to making cocoa beans. You can take certain classes in high school that might inspire your future choices.
Steve Wallace was an exchange student when he was a teenager, and he traveled to Africa. While he was there he started his chocolate business called Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co. He choose Ghana to start his business because Ghana is the largest or second-largest cocoa-producing country in the world; in addition, he had interest in the country because he loved the affection and just everything about it. Personal and economic factors were that he saw the country emerge into a democracy; it emerged from a colony to a first-world economy. Making chocolate in Ghana is a revolutionary concept because there was no actual chocolate production. Ghana is one of the biggest producers of cocoa, but never made it into chocolate in Ghana. He wants to do this so that the main producer of the cocoa, Ghana will get recognition in the cocoa value chain. An experience from high school that can inspire my future choices is taking DECA courses, these business classes allow me the opportunities to possibly do something like this in the future.
Steve Wallace was an exchange student in Ghana who founded the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co. He chose Ghana as the location to start his business because of his affection for the country and witnessing of an emerging democracy. The whole idea of making chocolate in Ghana is revolutionary because Ghana is highly known for making cocoa beans but not chocolate. This could relate to the cocoa value chain because the people who are making the chocolate are already used to making cocoa beans. One can use high school as a way to see what one can do with their life.
1. Steve Wallace is the founder of Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co in Ghana, which he started shortly after moving to Ghana on an exchange program. He chose Ghana to start his business because of the countries massive cocoa bean production industry. The factors that influenced Steve’s decision were that he realized that while Ghana made a decent amount of money in exporting cocoa beans, they could make a lot more by making the chocolate in Ghana itself instead of exporting it to other countries like Switzerland and France.
2. Making chocolate in Ghana is such a revolutionary concept because for the longest time, Ghana has been satisfied with the production and an exportation of cocoa beans to other chocolate making countries. This means that there will have to be a lot of change in the industry to start chocolate production. This relates to the cocoa value chain because it doesn’t make sense that a producer of the primary ingredient of chocolate should not be able to make profit out of the manufacturing and selling of chocolate as well.
3. Experiences from high school that could inspire peoples future choices are the classes they take, and the clubs and organizations they participate in. Outside of classroom experiences like academic field trips also play an important part in future choices.
Steve Wallace was who decided to start the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co. after an exchange to Ghana as a student. He chose to start his business in Ghana because he had a special interest in the country and saw a lot of opportunities. In Personal and economic factors may have influenced his decision that have got to see first hand that the country was trying to move forward into a democracy and by also reinvigorating it’s own economy.
Steve Wallace making chocolate in Ghana is a revolutionary concept because it is the largest or second largest cocoa producing country in the world and it should be able to reap the benefits of it’s produce. Steve wanted his company to play at least a small modest role as it began to transition from a colony to a first-world economy. It relates to the cocoa value chain because Steve wanted to change the fact that they were only the bottom of the chain when they could do so much more than grow beans.
An experience from high school that could inspire your future choices is volunteering or also doing an internship through your school.
1. Steve Wallace was as an understudy in Ghana who started the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co. This occurred after he was exchanged to Ghana as a trade understudy. Individual and money related components that may have influenced his decision are that he got the chance to see coordinate that the country was endeavoring to push ahead into a famous government and by furthermore resuscitating its own economy. He started his business in Ghana since he had an uncommon excitement for the country and saw various open entryways.
2. Steve Wallace making chocolate in Ghana is a dynamic thought since it is the greatest or second greatest cocoa conveying country on the planet and it should have the ability to get its prizes make. He required his association to play no not as much as a touch of unassuming part as it advanced from a settlement to a first-world economy. This relates to the cocoa regard append in light of the way that Steve expected to change how they were only the base of the chain when they could do all things considered generously more than create beans.
3. There are several experiences from high school that could inspire your future choices. One example would be joining into after school clubs and learning what they do and what interest you. Another example would be joining electives that might interest you and you take the course and see if it should be on your path. These ways will help you a lot and it will make choosing your future choices easier.
Steve Wallace was an exchange student in Ghana who founded the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co. He chose Ghana as the location to start his business because of his affection for the country and witnessing of an emerging democracy. The whole idea of making chocolate in Ghana is revolutionary because Ghana is highly known for making cocoa beans but not chocolate. This could relate to the cocoa value chain because the people who are making the chocolate are already used to making cocoa beans. One can use high school as a way to see what one can do with their life.
1. Steve Wallace was a foreign exchange student in Ghana who came from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who started a chocolate bar business in Ghana. He chose Ghana because he loved Ghana and loved watching the emerging democracy, and because Ghana produced cocoa, which is used to make chocolate. He also chose Ghana because he used his business as an excuse to go back to Ghana.
2. Making chocolate in Ghana is such a revolutionary concept because Ghana focuses on the production of raw cocoa beans and exporting it to European countries where the fine chocolate is made. Ghana is the bottom of the cocoa value chain, since it just grows the beans.
3. Any experience in high school could affect my future choices, I just have to wait for these moments and experiences to occur.
Steve Wallace has taken something that everyone loves and turned it into a franchise while also helping a lower developed country. This is a very innovative idea and it immediately hooked me because I love chocolate.
Who is Steve Wallace and why did he choose Ghana to start his business? What personal and economic factors influenced that decision?
Steve Wallace was a foreign exchange student in Sunyani, Ghana who created Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co. He chose Ghana to start his business because of the large cocoa production in Ghana. The economic factor that influenced this decision was that since Ghana made a decent amount of money growing cocoa beans, they could make a lot more by making chocolate as well in Ghana itself.
Steve Wallace says, “I’d like Ghana to get to the point where we realize that creating brands will unlock quite a bit of wealth for that country.” Why is making chocolate in Ghana such a revolutionary concept? How does this relate to the cocoa value chain?
Making chocolate in Ghana is such a revolutionary concept because they only used to grow it but now they are making it, which raises their profits and helps the economy. This relate to the cocoa value chain being that they will go from the bottom rung of only growing cocoa beans to the higher rung of making chocolate as well.
Steve Wallace is a guy that decided to start a business in Ghana, Africa, he chose Ghana because of all of the Cocoa over there and he just loved it over there. One of the reasons why he started that business over there is because he knew that the people love and it would sell well.
1. Steve Wallace was an exchange student that lived in Ghana and now has a business there. Wallace saw that Ghana was an emerging democracy and also had the ability to produce chocolate that could compete in the marketing industry. Wallace started to miss Ghana and wanted to have something there so he could come back to Ghana and he also wanted to give back to the community of Ghana that gave him so much.
2. Making chocolate in Ghana could really improve their economy and can help the country thrive and help it deal with the country’s problems. Making chocolate and trading with other countries can strengthen ties with other countries and help the country make allies to help it improve Ghana.
3. Being involved in clubs, especially those that go out and help people in needs would probably have a bigger impact on me and inspire me to go out of my way and continue the things these clubs are doing in my own way.
Wallace was an exchange student that used to live in Ghana and now owns a business there. Steve Wallace was a foreign exchange student in Sunyani. He decided to start his business in Ghana because he loved how they produced cocoa there and he just loved the environment overall. He took something that everyone loves, cocoa, and started his business in a lower level country for people there.
This article was really interesting, since such country is the one exporting the raw materials to more industrialized countries to produce a fine product out of their raw material amazes me. What this kid proposes is valuable, as he tries to take advantage of hi country’s natural resource at its finest.
He had been selected to go to Ghana and started his business there because he saw a lot of potential for the business of chocolate production to grow. personally that is where he was sent to and economically he wanted to see Ghana reach its potential. Making chocolate in Ghana is revolutionary because while they have historically been a large producer of cocoa they have never produced chocolate.
Steve Wallace was an exchange student who went to Ghana. He chose Ghana to start his business because he loved the country was it was experiencing an emerging democracy.
Making chocolate in Ghana is a revolutionary concept because it will help Ghana strengthen its economy and help it transition from a colony to a first-world economy. This relates to the cocoa value chain because Ghana is at the bottom of it.
Many experiences from high school can affect your future choices. This includes taking certain courses and joining a club.
Steve Wallace is the man who decided to start the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company in Ghana because he was formerly an exchange student there. Wallace making dark chocolate in Ghana is a revolutionary idea because Ghana is one of the largest cocoa producing countries in the world and it should be able to lower production costs. Wallace dreams that his company will partake at least a small role in transforming Ghana into a new economic powerhouse. This relates to the cocoa value chain because Wallace wanted to alter the fact that was only on the bottom of the chain when Ghana could do more than just grow beans. This kind of story helps inspire people to make decisions to help change the world for the better.
1. Steve Wallace was an exchange student in Ghana from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He chose Ghana because he loved it there and had a lot of experience there. He believed the country had the capability to take on the business. He witnessed the changing democracy in Ghana and was hooked to it.
2. Making chocolate in Ghana is such a revolutionary concept because Ghana is a huge cocoa producer, but not that big of a chocolate producer, so that could finally change. This relates to the cocoa value chain because the people will be more comfortable producing so much cocoa, because it is being made into chocolate. The cocoa’s value increases because it is now necessary for the chocolate.
3. The choices/experiences I make in high school greatly affect the choices I will make in the future. The clubs I am in or the AP classes I take could affect what I end up studying in college or do as my job when I am older.
Steve is an exchange student. Factors that influence Steve’s decision is that he witnessed the country as an emerging democracy, and that it was reinvigorating its own economy. He is trying to this revolutionary because the people of Ghana were already used to making cocoa beans. This relates beachside people were already use to this process and they felt fine. Some experiences from high school for future are the ones that stick out.
1. Steve Wallace is an exchange student from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He chose Ghana to start his business because he loved it there and had a lot of experience there. The factors that influenced him was that he believed the country had the capability to take on the business. He witnessed the changing democracy in Ghana and was hooked to it.
2. Making chocolate in Ghana is such a revolutionary experience because Ghana is a huge cocoa producer, but not a chocolate producer. This relates to the cocoa value chain because the people will be more comfortable producing so much cocoa, because it is being made into chocolate. The cocoa’s value increases because it is now necessary for the chocolate.
3. The choices I make in high school greatly affect the choices I will make in the future. The classes i take through out my high school experience could lead my to the profession i was to pursue.
Steve Wallace was an exchange student in Ghana who founded the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co. He chose Ghana as the location to start his business because of his affection for the country and witnessing of an emerging democracy. The whole idea of making chocolate in Ghana is revolutionary because Ghana is highly known for making cocoa beans but not chocolate. This could relate to the cocoa value chain because the people who are making the chocolate are already used to making cocoa beans. One can use high school as a way to see what one can do with their life.n
Steve Wallace, an exchange student who started his Ghana-based business, the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co. He chose Ghana to start the business because of his affection and interest for the country. The personal and economic factors that influence Steve’s decision are that he witnessed the country as an emerging democracy, and that it was reinvigorating its own economy. Steve Wallace is making chocolate in Ghana as a revolutionary concept because the people of Ghana were already used to making cocoa beans. This relates to the cocoa value chain because the people would be comfortable with making the cocoa beans. Some experiences from high school that could inspire your future choices are the classes you take that interest you.
Incredible how an exchange student heads out to a foreign country, and finds a way for a business opportunity. Whats best of it all, is that it involves the Chocolate/cocoa bean industry. He manages to create, and commercialize other types of business’s as well. Steve Wallace a young entrepreneurial, and philanthropic mind changing/improving part of Ghana’s economy.
1.Steve Wallace was an exchange student in Ghana who founded the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co. He chose Ghana to start his business because he loved the country was it was experiencing an emerging democracy.
2.Making chocolate in Ghana is such a revolutionary concept because Ghana focuses on the production of raw cocoa beans and exporting it to European countries where the fine chocolate is made.Ghana is the bottom of the cocoa value chain, since it just grows the beans.
3. Some experiences from high school that can help you are volunteering and taking classes that you like.
Steve Wallace is a person who created the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co. He chose to start the business in Ghana because of his interest for the country. The personal and economic factors that influence Steve’s decision are that he witnessed the country as an emerging democracy, and its own economy was rising. Steve Wallace is making chocolate in Ghana because the people there are already used to growing it. This relates to the cocoa value chain because the people would be comfortable with growing the cocoa beans. Some experiences from high school that could inspire your future choices are the classes you take that interest you.
1. Steve Wallace, an exchange student, that lived in Ghana and now has a business there. Steve Wallace noticed and took notes that Ghana was an upcoming democracy and also had the ability to produce goods and make money off of it, so he went for dark chocolate bars. Wallace occasionally visits Ghana, as he has a place there so he can visit and give back to the people.
2. The market of chocolate can affect the economy. They can make a lot of money and use that money for problems within Ghana. Making and trading chocolate with other countries strengthens ties and help the country become closer with countries.
3. Clubs, classes and if you’re involved in school activities. Also your grades can change your figure depending on how you look at it.
Why is making chocolate in Ghana such a revolutionary concept? How does this relate to the cocoa value chain?
Thank you i found the article really interesting. Making chocolate in Ghana is a revolutionary concept because Ghana is the second exporter of cocoa in the world but not a producer of chocolate. It break down the value chain by producing the chocolate where the cocoa is produced,wich, is an interesting idea for Ghana. But the thing is that they have serious competitors and a minds to change.
Long-term health of people in a nation like Ghana or a nation in a similar situation is affected by decisions similar to what Steve Wallace did because for the same pound of chocolate that they sold for $1.50 could be sold for 26 dollars more. This nation could be lifted out of poverty, and health would steadily increase if people now had enough food. Also, with all this extra money the country would have, over the long term, could be put into hospitals and similar health technologies. Also, this company valued its employees like family, and had a nurse for them. They valued the health of their employees. When this company that promotes health does well, then it could inspire an increase in health in other companies.
The decision to open a company in Ghana provided more job opportunities. This opened better jobs because working in a factory is better than in a field. You don’t need to have many skills to work in a factory either. He gives good benefits to his workers like free lunch and healthcare. He gives them reasonable wages too. He believes that if he wants his workers to work well, he has to pay them to do well. He gives them a share in the company so they have a reason to work hard. This might encourage other entrepreneurs to do the same thing in other countries with other products. This could help pull developing countries out of poverty and help them catch up with the developed countries.
By changing this model Wallace provides many job opportunities for the people of Ghana. They are given health care, free meals, and given a better/safer work environment. They are given shares in the company which gives them something to work for, which results in a better and more positive work environment for all workers. They are even given clothes to work in so that they can be comfortable when working. This model greatly affects the people of Ghana in many positive ways, and I would advise other nations to pursue the same model.
Steve Wallace’s decision affects the long term health of Ghana in a positive way. Not only is everything produced right in Ghana, there are different benefits for all workers. He has not only an on site doctor on hand, he has free lunches and free uniforms for all employees. Also, everyone has stakes in the company giving them incentives to work. In terms of spreading his economic model globally, he does two things. He looks at what a country is actually good at, not what they were historically good at or want to be good at. He then looks at ways that you could parallel the current industry to open something new that could play off of it. His business model also follows a long term plan instead of a short term plan that focuses on making money quick. He believes his model is a more secure and productive way of generating wealth over a longer period of time.
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I love chocolate, and I love Ghana. I am so proud that Steve Wallace brought Ghanaian chocolate to the Milwaukee area. I can’t wait to taste it.
Steve Wallace’s decisions to change the model of the cocoa business will directly affect the long-term health of people in Ghana in a very good way. As Ghana continues to make their own chocolate and export it like they have with the brand Steve Wallace started, the economy of Ghana will quickly rise. The higher economy will bring wealth to a lot of people in Ghana. If every different chocolate brand has a factory for making chocolate, that creates a lot of job opportunities for people in Ghana. Every person who works at Wallace’s chocolate facility receive free lunch every day as well as an on-site medical clinic for all employees and their families. Taking what’s been happening in Ghana gives many other poor countries opportunities to grow their wealth just as Ghana has been doing. If more countries focus less on only selling the base product like sugar and cocoa, and focus more on the opportunity cost that goes with it, they can be like Ghana and grow their wealth exponentially and give all of their citizens a better life. In conclusion, I do think that Steve Wallace’s decision to change the model of the cocoa business directly affects the long-term health of people in Ghana in a very good way.
Wallace’s decisions can improve the quality of life for the people in there area’s incredibly. First, it created a wider variety of jobs in places. This allowed for the people in Ghana to work in the chocolate industry, not only as farmers for the cocoa bean, but also producers of the chocolate bars themselves, by using imported machines. This change of the system of chocolate in Ghana brings a ton of money back into the economy. Instead of selling chocolate for $1.50 a pound, the chocolate production within the country can help Ghana to harness the $26.00 a pound chocolate commands in the foreign market. This decision can help the developing countries that are the base of our chocolate market to pull themselves out of poverty and create better lives for their people.
Steve Wallace’s decisions to change the model of the cocoa business will affect the long term health of the people in Ghana by allowing them to have greater income from their coca products. The people of Ghana are now able to make more revenue from their own product. Being able to grow the cocoa and make it into chocolate bars themselves lets them gain money from their own work rather than sell the cocoa for cheap to European manufacturers. This allows the people of Ghana to get the full benefits of their product, letting them grow and prosper as they move up the production chain. This will also apply to many other countries and businesses as they begin to allow the initial farmers and manufacturers of the base products. While this currently is being applied with chocolate in Ghana, it may eventually reach countries like China and Japan that create many resources and products for other countries.