CHOCOLATE could be the Far North's next tourism industry sweetener amid plans for an old-style chocolate factory in Cairns and a cocoa bean fermentation plant further south. 

Cairns's Chocolat business owner Lyndon Wittingslow is planting plots of cocoa near Gordonvale and hopes to provide the fledgling Far Northern agricultural industry with a fermentation factory in the same region.

A chocolate factory, featuring reconditioned 1950s roasters, grinders and presses, would be a tourist drawcard for the centre of Cairns, he said.

"Both (factories) would be tourist attractions, with a long-term goal of a restaurant, tours and a cocoa bean cosmetics section at the fermentation plant,'' Mr Wittingslow said.

Cocoa has been trialled as a commercial crop at Mossman and Innisfail for more than a year, and used by Cocoa Australia and its sister company Farm By Nature for an all-Australian dark chocolate product.

The Department of Primary Industry's Yan Diczbalis said trials had proved cocoa had strong potential as a niche crop in the Far North.

More than 30ha were planted from Mossman to Ingham, south of Tully, and some of those plantings were sponsored by chocolate giant Cadbury Schweppes, he said.

The cocoa plants, which were a 'fast-growing and rapid-producing hybrid' variety from Papua New Guinean seeds, took a minimum of 18 months to develop beans for harvest.

Mr Wittingslow's company, which opened a Chocolat patisserie and cafe in Cairns last year, relies on a Belgium chocolate product.

"We want to get a first-grade bean growing really well here and we're gathering interest from private investors in developing a fermentation factory for the whole industry,'' he said.

"This is a new industry but one that has potential to grow into something big.''

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