Cocoa farmers operate in a chocolate supply chain that perpetuates poverty and bear the bulk of the risk, claims Cacao for Change as it proposes an alternative model.
The cocoa and chocolate industry acknowledges it must do more to combat cocoa child labor after the number of kids working in hazardous conditions on cocoa farms in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire rises 18%, a report from Tulane University shows.
Two Brazilian chocolate companies Harald and Nugali are hoping to go head-to-head with the largest premium manufacturers in the U.S. market with single origin cocoa from their home nation.
The International Cocoa Organization has quelled media reports of a chocolate crisis in 2020 and says there are sufficient cocoa stocks for the next five years.
Lindt’s Russell Stover acquisition gives it a stronger US foothold, but only in a declining category, say analysts, who argue expansion in emerging premium chocolate markets may have been a better choice.
Investment firm BBX Capital has snapped up another US premium chocolate company - Californian-based Jer’s Chocolates - and is on the look out for more buys, its president says.
Confectionery can overcome its unhealthy and industrially-produced image by marketing the authenticity of products and doing more to engage consumers, says the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI).
On-farm implementation of cocoa bean starter cultures could aid the production of chocolate with a more consistent flavour, according to a new study from a team Belgian researchers and Barry Callebaut.
Trading directly with Ecuadorean farmers ensures a better quality bean and boosts the ecological and ethical profile of a chocolate company, claims a US manufacturer.
A trial by chocolate maker Lindt USA to supply cocoa bean shells to a fuel burning facility to produce ‘green’ power is now being implemented officially following approval by the state environmental authorities.
The chocolate maker Lindt is teaming up with a power plant in the hope of using cocoa shells, which are a by-product from its processing facilities, to produce ‘green’ fuel.
Marabel Farms, an independent producer and supplier of cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic, has opened its first warehouse and distribution centre in the US.
Neither a price hike nor the added strain of life in the United
States since the terror attacks of Sept 11 have deterred some
chocolate buyers from getting their dose of sweets, say industry
watchers.
