Chilian dancers celebrate the opening of Barry Callebaut's new factory in Paine, Chili. Photo provided.

The Barry Callebaut Group has officially inaugurated its first chocolate factory in Chile — and the chocolate maker hopes the new site will help it better serve the Latin American market.

The new, state-of-the-art facility in Paine, which is about about 40 km. from the capital city of Santiago de Chile, will produce liquid chocolate and compound for food manufacturers and confectionery companies. Specifically, it’s slated to have has an initial annual production capacity of around 25,000 tons of liquid chocolate and compound.

Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, chose Paine for the new factory because of its proximity to Santiago’s central economic district and its geographic accessibility to existing and potential customers in Chile and adjacent countries.

The factory will serve as a regional base for Barry Callebaut to tap into the rapidly growing Chilean chocolate market while capturing new opportunities in the broader Andean region.

Chile is currently an attractive market for growth in the chocolate sector, explains Juergen Steinemann, Barry Callebaut Group’s ceo, as are the neighboring countries of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Peru.

“The inauguration of our new factory in Chile further confirms our commitment to serving customers throughout Latin America,” Steinemann says. “As the global popularity of chocolate continues to grow, our focus remains on expanding into emerging markets to better serve our customers, [including both] food manufacturers and confectionery companies.”

Speaking at a press conference prior to the inauguration ceremony, Gerardo Elizondo, the Barry Callebaut Group’s general manager for the Andean Region added, “There is a significant growth momentum of the Chilean chocolate market compared to other Latin American markets. The growth potential includes a fast-growing demand for high-quality chocolate, technical services and innovations. That’s where we can offer added-value to our customers.”

With a yearly chocolate consumption of 2.2 kg per capita, Chile is among the top markets in Latin America. Currently, the country consumes as much as 40,000 tons of chocolate confectionery products each year.

The market is expected to grow by nearly 3.5 percent per annum in volume until 2019 (+7.0 percent in value) — much higher than the long-term average annual volume growth rate of the global chocolate market, which is 2.0 percent.

This new factory is just one of Barry Callebaut’s efforts to expand it’s Latin American presence. Since 2008, the chocolate maker  has opened seven factories in three countries.

In addition to the new Chile factory, the company operates two cocoa factories and one chocolate factory in Brazil, as well as one cocoa factory and two chocolate factories in Mexico.

The new factory in Paine, Santiago de Chile, is Barry Callebaut’s first chocolate factory in the Andean Region. It will also serve as a regional sales and management headquarters.

WATCH: At the end of 2012, Barry Callebaut signed its first outsourcing agreement in South America. To serve its customer Arcor-Dos en Uno, but also to serve others in this region, the company has opened a new factory in Santiago de Chile. 

Barry Callebaut Expansion - Emerging markets, outsourcing and strategic partnerships from Barry Callebaut Group on Vimeo.