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Bitter sweet success for Venezuelan chocolate - 19 May 2008

2012-05-02 34 Dailymotion

Al Jazeera's Lucrecia Franco reports from Venezuela, on how the chocolate industry is becoming a new battleground.

As left-wing nationalism spreads across Latin America, foreign companies there are having to rethink their business strategies.

Willie Harcourt-Cooze, a British entrepreneur who has been dubbed Willy Wonka after the fictional character, is using Venezuelan cacao beans to make a highly sought-after chocolate.

Harcourt-Cooze boasted that his South American plantation produces "the finest, rarest and most expensive cacao in the world".

However, his success has left a bitter taste in the mouth of Hugo Chavez, the country's president.

Chavez has ordered an investigation into his export business.