United Cacao Ltd SEZC (LON:CHOC) CEO Dennis Melka chats with DirectorsTalk about the current state of the cacao market, planting programme and walks us through the economics of the business at maturity.
United Cacao Limited SEZC is the first publicly listed pure-play cacao producer globally and the first publicly listed tropical plantation company in Latin America. It’s strategy is to develop the Group such that it can become the world’s largest and lowest cost corporate grower of cacao by the end of 2016. This is the third large-scale plantation company that the Company’s Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dennis Melka, has successfully developed. Mr. Melka has already planted over 6,000 hectares of palm oil estates in the Pucallpa region of Peru. The Group’s senior Peruvian managers collectively have several decades of cacao experience primarily with the United Nations Alternative Development Program. At maturity, the Group’s estate will require the full-time employment of more than 800 people. The Directors are confident there is sufficient labour availability due to the Group’s proximity to a major metropolitan area with a population in excess of 450,000 and which suffers from relatively high unemployment.
