Chocolates El Rey is a Venezuelan chocolate manufacturer. The company uses only premium-grade, locally grown raw material in the formulation of all its products. El Rey’s family-run business is one of oldest chocolate manufacturers in Venezuela.

Fair Cacao Exchange

El Rey offers consumers gourmet chocolate made from fairly traded cacao beans direct from small and large-scale growers in Venezuela. El Rey has managed to eliminate all kinds of middlemen, otherwise known as “coyotes”, who pay lowest possible price to growers by establishing Aprocao a democratically run cooperative that pays above market price for its cacao beans. Their trading partners are small growers and large who deal directly with Aprocao without intermediaries. Through Aprocao El Rey teaches growers how to manage the soil in a sustainable agricultural system promoting natural cycles without chemical pesticides or fertilizers and how to ferment each cacao harvest to earn the best price.

History

1973 - The Zozaya family and the Redmond family become partners. The company changes from a family enterprise to a stock market listed company, which now has a new name: Chocolates El Rey, C.A., the same brand as the products processed in the factory.

1974 - First transformation of the company. This occurs when the processing technology is improved and the exportation of cacao derivatives (cacao liquor, cacao butter and cacao powder) increases.

1975 - The Venezuelan government monopolizes the marketing of cacao in Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

 in detriment of the generations of Venezuelans that made history by placing Venezuelan cacao in the world markets.

1979 - The construction of a new factory begins in Cumaná

Cumaná

Cumaná is the capital of Venezuela's Sucre State. It is located 402 km east of Caracas. It was the first settlement founded by Europeans in the mainland America, in 1501 by Franciscan friars, but due to successful attacks by the indigenous people, it had to be refounded several times...

, Sucre

Sucre (state)

Sucre State is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Cumaná. Sucre State covers a total surface area of 11,800 km² and, in 2007, had an estimated population of 916,600.-Municipalities and municipal seats:...

 state, with the intention of transferring all the operations there. At that time, the city of Cumaná accounted for 60% of the national production.

1980 - The government changes the rules of the game in so far as cacao prices are concerned by favoring the export of the cacao grain. The company is forced to abandon its exporting efforts and to focus exclusively on the domestic market.

1989 - After a stable but limited growth period, Chocolates El Rey, C.A. quickly reacts to a new government initiative: to lead the country along the path of a market economy. A second transformation in foreign trade takes place in the country; this time, it is based on the comparative advantages of Venezuelan cacao in an effort to become competitive within a regional and world economic integration scheme.

1995 - Inauguration of the new factory in Barquisimeto

Barquisimeto

Barquisimeto is the capital city of the State of Lara located in west central Venezuela, halfway between Caracas and Maracaibo on the Turbio River.-Overview:...

, Lara

Lara (state)

Lara State is one of the 23 states into which Venezuela is divided. The state capital is Barquisimeto.Lara State covers a total surface area of and, in 2007, had an estimated population of 1,795,100.- Municipalities and municipal seats :...

 state, where all the industrial operations are now integrated. A new international stage of the company begins with the first exports to the United States.

1997 - Mass consumption products are inaugurated and exports are made to Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, Surinam, Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...

, Curaçao

Curaçao

Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

 and Aruba

Aruba

Aruba is a 33 km-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located 27 km north of the coast of Venezuela and 130 km east of Guajira Peninsula...

.

1998 - Chocolate exports are made to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

1999 - The Venezuelan mass consumption market is explored with a new line of confectionery.

2001 - Chocolates El Rey, C.A. is awarded the ISO-9002 certification (given by Fondonorma) thereby ratifying the company's high quality standards in accordance with the requirements of the Venezuelan COVENIN ISO Standard.

Types of Venezuelan Cacao

• Criollo: It is located in the South of Lake Maracaibo and in the foothills of the Venezuelan Andes. Criollo is considered to have the finest flavor and aroma. In Pre-Columbian times criollo, traveled north to Central America and the Caribbean, the Spaniards took it across the world as far as Asia. Today, criollo is in danger of extinction and of being replaced by high yielding, disease resistant forastero. Criollo pods are usually deeply ridged, warty, and with pointed ends. When the criollo beans are cut open, the cotyledons range from pure white to shades of pink. When properly fermented, the criollo beans dry to a tan color and exude a distinct chocolate aroma. Venezuelan criollo are highly appreciated by chocolate connoisseurs for their lack of bitterness and astringency, and their pure, lingering chocolate taste.

• Forastero: It is located in Western and Central Amazonia. The Cacao Forastero is a sturdy, disease-resistant Amazonian cacao. When cut open the cotyledons have a deep purple color. This pigment is given by substances that impart a bitter, acid, and astringent flavor to the forastero beans. Today, forastero is the cacao of choice in the large commercial cacao plantations of Africa, Asia, and Brazil.

• Trinitario: It is Born in the island of Trinidad from the crossing between Forastero and criollo cacao. Since the eighteenth century, trinitarios grow in Eastern Venezuela and sell at a premium at the world cacao market.