Craft chocolate is due its moment, like coffee and wine, new group believes
Sunday, 12 July 2026
Craft chocolate producers are hopeful a new industry collective will give the small manufacturers strength in numbers as they move towards growing the industry.
Just like specialty coffee, spirits and wine, New Zealand’s chocolate producers are hopeful the craft chocolate market will be able to carve out a bigger niche and convert chocolate lovers into fans of more interesting flavours and chocolate that is more ethical.
A Bar Apart founder Luke Owen Smith established the group for bean-to-bar chocolate producers, and is currently at 15 members - those who make chocolate from scratch, starting with roasting cacao beans.
“It's all about makers who make it from scratch and are transparent about the source of their beans, and are transparent about how they make chocolate, so they show it either on social media or in public factories. We really want to develop the awareness in the public for chocolate making, and kind of the appreciation and respect for it as a craft,” Smith told The Post.
Read more:
Cacao business devastated after US customs ruins $220k shipment
Small Business Project: Chocolatier on the realities of going viral
Members use a logo on their packaging and in their marketing to make it easier for consumers to identify the disclosure.
“The craft chocolate movement is happening all over the world, and there's been a real gap in the industry for something that recognises the craft in this way.”
Craft chocolate has been a small but growing portion of the chocolate category in New Zealand for about 15 years.
Smith said he was motivated to start A Bar Apart to help the industry grow and help consumers “understand the chocolate they see on the shelves.
“Chocolate is quite a confusing industry, and they don't realise that when they're looking at the shelves, there's all these different brands doing different things. Some are big industrial chocolate makers from overseas, some are smaller chocolatiers, but they're using big industrial chocolate.
“In terms of small scale people who make it from scratch, it's really a small segment of the industry in New Zealand and globally … I want people to know more about what they're seeing on the shelf, and I want these chocolate makers to be respected for the craft that they've developed over the years, because it's a very difficult thing to do.”
While higher in price, that was because growers were paid fairly and it was sourced and produced more ethically, craft chocolate was “quite a revelatory experience” - and different to the taste of mainstream chocolate, Smith said.
Part of his efforts were to get more New Zealanders to try it, he said.
A Bar Apart held a launch event in Auckland CBD this week, bringing together eight chocolate producers from around the country. One of those attending was Raglan Chocolate co-founders Mike Renfree and Simone Downey.
As a two-person operation and having a little marketing budget, being part of the collective meant the business would be able to “accomplish more” and “get the word out more through all the different voices of other makers” to shine more light on craft chocolate, Downey said.
“We get to create chocolate that is the dream in every way, and that everyone along the train, from the grower, the maker, and the consumer, can be blown away, like with wine or something special.”
Wellington chocolate maker Clayton McErlane, founder of Baron Hasselhoff's - known for its adventurous flavours and sourcing its beans from the Pacific Islands - shared a similar view.
McErlane said he believed A Bar Apart would grow sales for makers and bringing greater awareness to craft chocolate.
“Overseas makers are looking at what we're doing, and this is what everybody needs. I'm sure once this will spread through other countries as well,” McErlane said.
“The only way we can make more impact in the Pacific with cacao growers is by selling more chocolate. The more chocolate we sell, the better their lives will be, and the more impact we can have on their communities. Supermarkets in New Zealand, that's the only channel we can really go towards.”
New Zealand has more craft chocolate makers per capita than anywhere else in the world.
According to Ken Research, New Zealand’s chocolate market is valued at US$130 million, growing in recent years due to demand for premium and artisan and health-focused products. The craft segment within that is growing 12% annually.
Smith said there was a huge amount of opportunity ahead for craft chocolate, including better representation in the supermarkets, and it could position itself as a tourism experience similarly to how distilleries do.
Wellington Chocolate Factory recently developed a range of chocolate specifically for, and has started selling into, supermarkets.
With the rising cost of cocoa and chocolate more generally, Smith said craft chocolate was becoming more on par with prices seen else in the industry.
“Not everyone's going to spend $10-plus on a bar of chocolate, but actually that's getting more normal, especially with the increased cocoa prices, even the big industrial brands, they’re getting towards $8 a bar, the gap is decreasing, and I think that's going to make it easier for craft chocolate makers,” he said.
“The price in cocoa jumped a lot over the last couple of years, but now it's gone back down, the chocolate prices didn't go back down, so now the big companies who are buying it cheap as chips, they're just making more money. These guys have always been paying much more for their cocoa, it's priced based on quality, not just to do the right thing.”
Smith was confident the craft sector would see strong growth.
“Craft chocolate still feels like very early days. It takes a long time to change culture, and that's what we're doing. It's not just about this as a higher quality product, it's actually about changing the way we think about chocolate, the way we connect with our chocolate, and the way we consume our chocolate, and it takes time for that to change.
“There's so much more potential. If you look at specialty coffee, craft beer, fine wine, those industries are so much more developed than craft chocolate, and when I talk to people about craft chocolate, still a lot of people have no idea about it.
“It's the type of thing you savour with a couple of bites, rather than a cheaper bar of chocolate that you might smash the whole thing at once. It's kind of like a nice bottle of whiskey versus a pint.”