Pioneer and trailblazer
45 years of PRONATEC. 25 years of organic and fair trade chocolate. And Year 1 of our new PRONATEC cocoa processing. Owner and Managing Director David Yersin talks about the courage to take risks and the joy of the unknown. And about the energy it takes to stand up for what you believe in.
PRONATEC in 1976. It all started with whole cane sugar, right?
That’s right. I can still vividly see us filling the 10-kilo bags of whole cane sugar for the Swiss health food shops ourselves. What drove my father, Albert Yersin, and his partner, Félix Béguin, was the idea of a healthy, tooth-friendly sugar – SUCANAT. When I joined the company in 1989, I encountered a lot of creative chaos in the office of these two former Sulzer engineers, but also an exciting overall vision.
I believe that SUCANAT which the two of them were selling at the time was very wholesome, but that it proved unsuitable for many foods.
Exactly. We needed a product with perspective. SYRAMENA, our light cane sugar in organic quality, took off with the organic movement of the 80s and 90s. But there was a great deal of scepticism: When the Bio Suisse inspector came back from our sugar fields in Paraguay, her report was met with disbelief in Switzerland. Such a large area of pure organic sugar farming – who would believe that? We had to do quite some convincing.
What came after sugar?
In 1996 we launched the first organic fair trade certified chocolate – Chocanat, as it was then, now AMARRÚ. At first, the industry scoffed at my idea of an organic chocolate without soy lecithin. But our recipe with more cocoa butter was in keeping with the spirit of the times. For the organic chocolate, we had to find a way to source other ingredients besides sugar in organic quality, such as cocoa, vanilla and almonds. In 1999, we founded our subsidiary YACAO in the Dominican Republic, to source organic cocoa.
Was the quality of organic raw materials 30 years ago comparable to today?
Not by a long way. Today’s quality is the result of numerous investments: for example, in building up the technical infrastructure of the sugar mills or developing the knowledge base around cocoa fermentation.
When did spices come into the picture?
We have been sourcing bourbon vanilla from our partner Premium Spices in Madagascar since 2005, and cloves and pepper have also been cultivated there in organic quality. Other spices such as cinnamon, ginger and turmeric were added to our range as a result of customer requests and good contacts.
What has been most important to you over the years?
Believing in what I do, even when other people are critical. I have remained true to my vision of organic and fair trade raw materials because I genuinely believe in it – despite all the sceptics. I knew that consumers would embrace it, that it would have a future. That has always given me the energy to keep going.
What is the basis of PRONATEC’s success?
As a small company, we have always had to be creative and innovative. This has allowed us to seize many opportunities, and we have paved the way for many of today’s market leaders. Our goal has always been to find solutions to our customers’ problems. In this way, we have laid a foundation of trust that goes beyond pure business and that has also sustained us in difficult situations.
Pioneer and trailblazer: You are taking the plunge with your new PRONATEC cocoa processing. Does this courage run in your family?
I have asked myself this question, too. I grew up in an international environment, spending my early years in Montreal, Canada. Perhaps it was this travelling, the cosmopolitanism, but there was also a certain ambition and enjoyment of risk. I want to know how a story ends. So I have to write it first.
Have there also been moments when things turned sticky?
Yes – more than once. In 1990, when we were talking to our father on the phone in Madagascar and civil unrest had just broken out there. He had barricaded himself in the hotel and we could hear machine-gun fire in the background. At that moment, it was not just my mother who was afraid for him. Then when I ended up sick with malaria on a Madagascan island, in the makeshift, miserable infirmary of a missionary community working there, and there was no medicine available for me. That really floored me. And finally, seven years ago, when I was travelling in Madagascar with our partner Jürg Brand. Because of a military coup, gunmen had barricaded themselves in our turmeric store, which we were about to show to a client. We decided not to visit the store that day.
How did you get the idea of doing your own cocoa processing in Switzerland?
With the semi-finished cocoa products, I could see a pattern emerging that I knew all too well: As innovative pioneers, we had paved the way – now it was only a question of time until bigger market players would take over the market we had developed. By opening our own production, I want to disrupt this pattern. If we don’t try, who will do it instead? I’m an entrepreneur, not an administrator. I want to see how the story unfolds. And to be perfectly honest: The concentration of technology in the new plant just makes me happy!
What challenges do you see in the near future?
One challenge for us as a team is not to let our major cocoa processing project tempt us to neglect our other products. A well-mixed product range has always been central to our balance as a company. And of course I already have more ideas in the pipeline – but more on that another time.
Dear David, thank you very much for this personal interview.
PS: You will find an overview of the most important milestones in the news entry for PRONATEC’s 40th anniversary.