Development of Cocoa Processed Food Products to Meet Consumer Demand

Abstract

The objectives of this study were 1) to study the level of importance of factors affecting the development of cocoa processed food products to meet the consumer demand, 2) to study the marketing strategies, financial readiness, entrepreneurship, and production management that influence the development of cocoa processed food products to meet the consumer demand, and 3) to propose guidelines for the development of cocoa processed food products to meet the consumer demand. The research findings showed that 1) the development of cocoa processed food products, production management, financial readiness, marketing strategies were very important factors, while the entrepreneurship was of moderate importance, 2) the factors influencing the development of cocoa processed food products to meet consumer demands were production management, entrepreneurship, marketing strategy, and financial readiness, respectively, and 3) the guidelines for the development of cocoa processed food products follow the DPFEM guidelines starting with the product management from building a network, building the links of entrepreneurs to strengthen marketing and develop cocoa quality to meet international standards in order to increase product value to be able to compete effectively in trade.