Cocoa solar dryer / Gillian Paya Bilong, Jenniffer Simban Kiven and Naomi Sara Johnny Mambu

In Malaysia, Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) can be categorized as one of the important industries. Innovation of cocoa in the postharvest process is needed by the industry to ease their production of cocoa products. As a high demand of cocoa products from consumers, the continuous availability of cocoa is one of the challenges that need to be faced by the cocoa industry. The traditional drying method that industry tends to use is natural drying (Sun drying) and artificial drying (Samoan dryer and Circular dryer) process. Sun drying process takes a long period and they need to supervise dried beans from time to time. The farmers must be alert with the weather conditions. Samoan and circular dryers also take a long period of time to dry and decrease the taste quality. By creating a new technology for the cocoa industry, they can produce a higher quality of cocoa production. We created a Cocoa Solar Dryer to fasten the drying process which could help shorten the time for drying before it moves to another stage of postharvest processing. The purpose of the solar panel method is our main focus for our technology because it helps to reduce the cost of electricity, fasten the duration of drying process and less manpower needed for supervision.