Ratanakiri Cacao
In the red soils of Ratanakiri, Confirel is exploring how cacao can grow within a Cambodian landscape of biodiversity, farming knowledge and careful post-harvest craft.
A new origin in the northeast
In the far northeast of Cambodia, Ratanakiri's volcanic highlands rise between 200 and 1,000 metres, covered in dense forest and threaded with red lateritic soil. It's a landscape long shaped by smallholder farming and by the Tampuen, Jarai, Kreung and Brao communities who call it home — and, since 2017, it has also been where Confirel has been cultivating an emerging cacao origin in Cambodia.
Cultivation with a longer view
Cacao is still an emerging crop for Cambodian agriculture, so the approach has been experimental from the start — adapting it to Ratanakiri's soil and climate alongside other trees, rather than clearing the landscape for a single new crop. The initiative now has a name of its own, Confirel's One Million Cocoa Trees programme, which Confirel presented at a UNIDO assembly in Addis Ababa in 2024 as a notable example of sustainable agricultural development in the region.
From cacao to Thnot Chocolate
Confirel is exploring what a genuinely Cambodian chocolate could look like, under the name Thnot Chocolate — extending the palm sugar universe into more indulgent formats by pairing Ratanakiri cacao with Thnot palm sugar and locally sourced ingredients.
The range is taking shape across three formats: chocolate truffles built around familiar Khmer flavours such as coconut, ginger, Kampot pepper and cashew; fruit-filled chocolates centred on mango, coconut, banana and passion fruit; and pure Thnot palm sugar chocolate in tablets, molded pieces and solid blocks.
It remains an early, ongoing project rather than a line available for purchase today — the same instinct that has shaped every Confirel terroir: let the ingredient lead, and see what Cambodia can make of it.
Follow the project
Ratanakiri Cacao is still a young terroir. Read more about how it started in our Journal.
