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Benns Ethicoa
When Malaysian cacao production crashed 99.9 percent—from 400,000 tonnes to just 500—Benns Ethicoa emerged as both mourner and resurrection agent, paying farmers triple market rates while winning Malaysia's first-ever international chocolate awards. The 52-year-old family business proves ethical sourcing can scale.
Transformation Arc
Malaysia once produced 400,000 tonnes of cacao annually. Today: under 500 tonnes. Against this 99.9% industry collapse, Benns Ethicoa emerged as both mourner and resurrection agent—paying farmers triple market rates while winning the first international chocolate awards ever claimed by a Malaysian company.
The economics of ethical chocolate
The global cacao supply chain runs on exploitation. With 70 percent of beans coming from West Africa, farmers earn US$2-3 per kilogram under conditions that fuel child labor scandals and generational poverty. Most bean-to-bar makers claim ethical sourcing while buying through traders who obscure actual farmer compensation.
Benns Ethicoa operates differently. The company pays farmers up to three times market price—approximately US$6-9 per kilogram—based on bean quality and farming practices. The transparency is revolutionary: Benns publishes cocoa prices on Instagram and names all farmer partners publicly. Current sourcing spans five Asian countries: from the Koh family’s 30-year-old farm in Pahang to smallholders in Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and India.
This direct trade model grew from Wilfred Ng’s conviction that craft chocolate’s niche market cannot sustain Malaysian cacao farming alone. His solution: prove that premium payments for quality beans can work economically, then scale those principles to mass market ingredients.
52 years of foundation: built on calculated risk
The story begins not with ethical sourcing but with another contrarian bet. Ng Tuck Ming, raised in Ipoh and trained at Singapore’s Van Houten Allied Chocolate Factory in the 1960s, founded Highland Chocolate in 1973. His micro factory became a regional household name, pioneering Asia’s first freeze-dried fruit chocolates and the continent’s first durian chocolate.
The 1998 Asian Financial Crisis tested this foundation. While competitors retreated, Ng Tuck Ming relocated the entire operation to Malaysia, anticipating the country would become a cocoa processing hub. Incorporating Benns Chocolate Factory in Cheras in March 1999 meant not just survival but strategic repositioning.
That bet paid off. But by the 2010s, the commodity chocolate model itself faced commoditization. Wilfred Ng, who joined the family business in 2001 with a mechanical engineering degree from Monash University, watched the bean-to-bar movement spread from America to Japan.
From commodity to craft: transformation at industrial scale
The 2017 founding of Benns Ethicoa marked the boldest pivot in company history. Wilfred was transforming a 44-year commercial enterprise into a craft chocolate maker when most Malaysian consumers didn’t even know chocolate came from fruit. Only one in ten could identify its botanical origin.
His approach married engineering discipline with ethical conviction. “We were a commercial chocolate maker from the start,” Wilfred explains. “Many bean-to-bar makers just focus on developing flavors but we think the bean-to-bar concept encompasses more values than just chocolate making.”
The December 2019 opening of Asia’s first open-concept bean-to-bar factory in Cheras made transparency tangible. Visitors could watch every production stage—from roasting to tempering—while learning about farmer partners through video displays. The factory became both manufacturing hub and consumer education center.
Validation through international recognition
COVID-19 nearly destroyed this model. The factory tour business was “badly hit” by pandemic restrictions, forcing a rapid pivot to e-commerce and online sales. But by late 2020, different validation arrived: Benns Ethicoa became the first Malaysian bean-to-bar company to win medals at the International Chocolate Awards.
The bronze at World Finals in Hannover alongside multiple Asia Pacific golds for the Merdeka Blend proved that Southeast Asian cacao could compete globally. By 2022, that same Merdeka Blend had accumulated four international medals—unprecedented for Malaysian chocolate. Recognition from the Academy of Chocolate Awards and the International Taste Institute’s iTQi Superior Taste Awards followed.
The company achieved 100 percent post-pandemic growth recovery in 2022, with projected profit growth continuing at 15-20 percent. Today 60 percent of products are exported to seven or more countries, with a Shanghai operations center established in 2021 signaling China market ambitions.
Beyond craft: the mass market mission
Wilfred’s vision extends past artisanal chocolate. “Craft chocolate markets are small,” he acknowledges. “We believe that to effectively promote and sustain cacao farms in Malaysia is to turn them into healthier cocoa ingredients for mass commercial use. We are in the process of doing that.”
The June 2023 launch of the Benns line—affordable chocolate using exclusively Malaysian-origin cacao—represents this democratization. Developed with the Malaysian Cocoa Board, it brings direct-trade principles to mass market price points.
Ng Tuck Ming remains as Chairman at 93, still walking the factory floor. His son has transformed the commodity business into Malaysia’s ethical chocolate leader. But the ultimate measure isn’t awards or export percentages—it’s whether Malaysian cacao farmers, those who survived the industry’s 99.9% collapse, can finally earn sustainable income from their land.