Whitefish Bay Man Transforming Ghana's Chocolate Industry

Steve Wallace’s primary home is on Cumberland Boulevard in Whitefish Bay, where he has raised his three kids – but he also has three other homes and host families half a world away in Ghana. 

Wallace studied abroad in Ghana through AFS when he was 16, and now the country is the fertile brewing grounds of his successful chocolate company Omanhene, established in 1991, which is making waves with its innovative international development strategy.

“At the end of the day maybe it’s just an excuse to go back to this place,” he said. “It was like that really good book that you keep putting back on the shelf and then going back to. I had a sense that I wasn’t done with that experience.”

Following the money

Ghana is widely renowned for growing some of the best cocoa beans in the world, but Omanhene is the only chocolate company that manufactures its chocolate within Ghana, and the only company to purchase beans solely from Ghana – helping to stabilize the market.

“With chocolate, the value gets added to the product in Switzerland, or Hershey, Pa.,” he said. “The beans lose a lot of their magic on that journey.”

As the beans ride away to the U.S. and Europe, they also take with them valuable opportunities for wealth.

It struck Wallace that manufacturing cocoa in Ghana could help build the country’s economy in a sustainable way while establishing a niche business as a responsible and high-quality chocolate company.  

Since its establishment in 1991, Omanhene has experienced steady economic growth and had its best financial year last year.

When Ghana's former President John Kufuor won the World Food Prize this year, he credited improvements to the cocoa industry for much of Ghana's economic growth. From 2001 to 2003, cocoa production doubled to more than 700,000 tons, according to the BBC. 

The execution of Wallace's plan did not come as elegantly as the idea, though. Every farmer who sells cocoa beans in Ghana has to sell them to the government at a set price ladder based on their quality. The government then bargains in the global market for a premium price. The idea is that the government absorbs some of the fall in bad years, and issues bonuses to the farmers in good years.

Having a monopoly on this trade, government officials were not easily convinced that Wallace’s idea was a good one. But they eventually conceded, with the stipulation that Wallace buy all of his beans from the government.

“It works, so we’re happy to play by the rules,” Wallace said. “I always thought there should be a way to do what I want to do and not disrupt the world they’ve created.”

A unique corporate ethic

It’s this idea that’s behind one of his more controversial business choices: to discontinue their “fair trade” certification.

His reasons are many, and they are outlined here, but essentially Wallace describes Omanhene as “beyond fair trade,” taking a more holistic approach to corporate responsibility. He said he finds the strict guidelines of fair trade certification can interfere with cultural traditions in a way that harms the people it aims to help – by requiring farmers to join co-ops, for example.

Additionally, Wallace sees the fair trade model as one that depends on charitable buying – therefore rendering it unsustainable.  

“It’s paternalistic, and it relies on the charitable intention of the buyer,” he said. “That doesn’t transform an economy.”

Omanhene buys its beans from the government, so there’s not much they can do for farmers on that level. As far as the roughly 300 workers employed at the factory, they receive free meals, health care, transportation and subsidized housing.

Making the chocolate bar

The meticulous attention Wallace affords his business philosophy is matched by his team in the manufacturing process.

The process from cocoa beans to chocolate takes about six weeks. After being harvested, the cocoa beans rest for about two weeks on the forest floor between palm leaves as they ferment, losing moisture and concentrating the flavor.  Then they are dried in the sun for another two weeks.

At the factory, they are roasted, chopped and heated. From them emerge two liquids, the clear cocoa butter rising above the dark cocoa liquor. The butter and liquor are mixed with a natural emulsifier such as soy lecithin that helps them mix together. In milk chocolate, milk powder is added.

The ingredients spend days together in a heated mixer before the liquid is poured into moulds where it is cooled, packaged and shipped in a temperature- and moisture-controlled container to the U.S., the U.K and sometimes Japan. 

Wallace said the chocolate is not sold in Ghana because it is so precisely crafted it melts within seconds upon exposure to Ghana’s hot climate.

The heat is even a bit much for Wallace, who despite his love for Ghana, said he’s always happy to return to his home in Whitefish Bay, where he, his parents and kids all grew up.  

“It’s a nice comfortable place to come home to,” Wallace said. “It’s a stressful business so some part has to be a little easier.”

Locally, you can find Omanhene products at Outpost, Alterra, Sendik’s, Woodman’s and Anondyne Coffee Roasters.