"Why Does The World Need Women Entrepreneurs ?"
An engineer by trade, Candice Peytour calls herself “self-taught in chocolate.” Despite a lack of formal training or experience in the cocoa industry, the French native was inspired to cofound her chocolate company with her husband after traveling to the Dominican Republic for an internship in logistics. There, she developed a love for the Caribbean island’s people and natural treasures.
“I discovered that the country is [one of the] leading exporters of organic cocoa beans, but that there is almost no processing know-how locally,” she says of the region’s cocoa farmers, who she says are often exploited by large manufacturers.
“That triggered my thinking about creating a chocolate business…with the key words: taste, quality and ethics,” she says.
Peytour returned to France with a dual purpose: to support organic local farmers and cooperatives like those in the Dominican Republic, and to end harmful industry practices that she says include child labor, biodiversity loss and unhealthy processing methods.
In 2017, Encuentro opened its doors in Paris, specializing in artisanal chocolates made with ethically sourced, carefully refined high-quality cocoa that Peytour says is used in only 2% of all chocolate production worldwide.
Since its opening, Encuentro has been recognized by the Salon du Chocolat, a yearly international chocolate industry trade fair, as the Top 25 “Best of the Best.” Besides making delicious chocolate, the company’s bean-to-bar process also ensures local producers are paid a fair price—compensating, on average, 3.5x the industry rate, she says—and its manufacturing facility produces no food waste, transforming 100% of all cocoa into chocolate products.
“Use your business to create a better world,” she says, “not to make you rich.”
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