Cocoa reflections: Amsterdam Cocoa week and Chocoa’s 2024 edition took on major industry issues
Amsterdam formed the backdrop to this year's Chocoa. Pic: Shutterstock
The global cocoa sector is under the microscope as never before amid major production challenges that have seen the key confectionery ingredient more than doubling in price within just a year. Kathryn Brand reports from the Amsterdam Cocoa Week events, including Chocoa and the WCF Partnership meeting
Amsterdam Cocoa Week successfully drew together myriad industry events under one roof for the first time, held at the beautiful Beurs van Berlage building in Amsterdam.
The debut collective included Chocoa, WINCC Women in Cocoa and Chocolate network gathering, the World Cocoa Foundation Partnership Meeting, Amsterdam Sustainable Cocoa Conference, Chocolate Makers Forum, and the Cacao of Excellence Awards.
While many of these individual events have been running for years, such as the Chocoa trade show featuring in its 12th installment last month, but a debut in person since the pandemic, it is the first time that they have all cohabited together under one umbrella.
However, the collaboration by all accounts was a veritable success. As we discussed earlier in this month’s magazine Jack Steijn, director of Chocoa and one of four people in The Company Behind Chocoa, commented that all the events had seen an increase in attendance as a result of the cohabitation, and exhibitors echoed this viewpoint, relishing in the wide and far reaching visitors it attracted.
While it was a diverse line up there were major themes that prevailed through much of the event: upcoming European Union Deforestation-Free regulations (EUDR) regulations, child labour, and cocoa prices (which reached fresh stock market highs by the 4th day of the event week), although this last one proved somewhat of a taboo, with many speakers curiously reluctant to be drawn into the conversation on this topic. However, the varied speakers alongside a consistently engaged audience facilitated many a productive and fascinating discussion on the topics, which really served to emphasise the importance and aims of events like this one.
Beurs van Berlage made an ideal setting for the event, set in the very centre of Amsterdam. The stunning 1896 building was built as a Stock Exchange, where undoubtedly cocoa, among a plethora of other wares, was traded. The city is also recognised as the world’s largest cocoa import port, highlighting it as a key link in the global cocoa supply chain, and reiterating the event’s pertinence in the city.
As for Chocoa trade show (7-9 Feb, with the more consumer focused chocolate festival on the 10-11 Feb), this consisted largely of cocoa suppliers, processors, equipment suppliers and chocolate makers. Henk Somers, MD, Lareka (below), a chocolate packaging machine manufacturer, commented that the event offers a completely different audience to ISM/Pro Sweets, far more international and a greater number of cocoa farmers. Therefore, Lareka’s presence at the show, Somers explained, was “for the customers who are producing relatively small volumes of chocolate, starting from 100,000 bars up to two million bars a year.”
Tobias Bierens de Haan, area sales manager, Caotech, which specialises in manufacturing ball mills for processing cocoa, similarly noted that their machine size was mostly bigger than would be suitable for most of the companies present at the show, but “This exhibition for us is more of a focus on seeing people and meeting people and not particularly selling machinery.” De Haan emphasised the importance of it terms of contacts and presence.
The audience Chocoa drew, was also a highlight for Ideo Tecnica, which designs and manufactures machines and complete production lines for chocolate and dried fruit processing. Its sales manager, Paolo De Carolis, explained how his company’s biggest challenge and objective this year is to enable customers to develop bean to bar all over the world.
Meanwhile, Nathalie Hudson, sustainability programme lead, tropicals & cocoa, Cargill, highlighted how Cargill is celebrating its ten year milestone of its Cocoa Promise during the show.
The specialist also added that they had enjoyed seeing their producers at the event; “We have some of our chocolate here, so it’s always nice to be able to see it from where it starts in Ivory Coast, in Ghana, in Indonesia and Brazil, and then coming to where it ends up.”
As well as processing and packaging companies, there were chocolate makers showcasing their products. One of which was Louisa Hilger, chocolatier for Colours Chocolate, which specialises in not only bean to bar, but farm specific bars, where each bar is specifically made from cocoa from one particular farm, and are labelled as such. Sampling the chocolate, it was amazing how different the bars tasted from one another despite being all from the same region of the Dominican Republic. Hilger said the show had been very busy and very positive for them, since they are a small company trying to establish themselves, but the show had given them the opportunity to speak to many new customers and buyers.
Another interesting company was Grosso, which crafts single origin Peruvian chocolate. However, Christian Grosso, CEO, explained, they are trying to find alternative applications for the byproducts of cocoa, such as a syrup from the fermentation process, as well as ingredients for beauty products, all in an effort to reduce waste and make the supply chain more sustainable.
As part of World Cocoa Foundation’s Partnership Meeting, the organisation hosted a session titled ‘Just transition pathways for cocoa communities in the race to net-zero.’ Kristy Leissle, founder of African Cocoa Marketplace Inc and moderator for this session, kicked off by saying that “the concept of just transition is meaningless unless we put people in it,” that it is important that the whole industry remembers that there are real people involved at the root of it. Which is why conversations with everyone throughout the whole supply chain are so essential.
Liessle then introduced Ryan McNeill, R&D sustainability lead at Nestlé to the floor, who spoke about the initiatives Nestlé is undertaking. “The foundation of any strategy needs to be understanding where we are in terms of deforestation.” McNeill then added that Nestlé is building on this with its Income Accelerator Programme. As, the event highlighted, these are issues that are intrinsically interlinked with the sector and should be treated as such.
Following on was Tatiana Kurancheva from the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) who similarly emphasised that not only was agriculture a cause of climate change, but is significantly impacted by it. A new lens to view these things is needed, she said, and that comes from an ongoing dialogue, transparency, and accountability.
Kwabena Assan Mends from Emfed Farms, spoke next. Mends explained how Emfed Farms signs five-year contracts with farms to take them over and implement agroforestry, organic practices, in particular utilising cocoa husks for compost, improving yields while absorbing all the risks on behalf of the farmer. This allows the transition to be made without risking what is likely to already be an unstable income for the farmer.
Meanwhile, Richard Hardy, investment director at BlueOrchard, concluded the session discussing insurance technologies for farmers. Hardy detailed that there is under penetration of insurance in emerging markets, especially in agriculture, where it can serve to protect farmers against some of the economic effects of climate change.
The next session of the WCF Partnership Meeting was ‘The Trilogy of Pricing – Farmer Income Part 1’, the first of three sessions, the next held the following day, and the final segment at the World Cocoa Conference in April in Brussels.
Alex Assanvo, executive secretary of the Initiative Cacao Cote d’Ivoire-Ghana, begun by expressing his pleasure that the question of living income was back on the agenda; “Farmer living income is possible. Farmers of cocoa can earn enough that they can be excited to invest in their farm […] That’s my vision,” urging that farmer income was the starting point of every issue and needs to be part of any solution.
For her part, Stephanie Daniels, senior programme director at Agriculture & Development Sustainable Food Lab, added to this by emphasising that we must “keep living income as an aspirational and inclusive concept that we are all able to believe in and make sure that the most vulnerable are actually included.”
Daniels then commented that it is “diversified and multi sector solutions to this challenge” that we need, Following on, Solomon Boateng of Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union, emphasised the need for cocoa farmers to diversify and utilise their knowledge for other agricultural products in addition to cocoa, since the price is not stable and cannot be depended upon. Angela Chavez, head of sustainable sourcing, Hershey Company, followed up with an overview of Hershey’s Income Accelerator which aims to ensure the resilience of the cocoa supply chain.
The WCF Partnership Meeting was concluded with a Closing Plenary in which the moderator, Joost Gorter, global director, ACT, asked each of the speakers for their key takeaways from the meeting. Obed Owusi-Addai, co-founder and managing campaigner, EcoCare Ghana begun by saying that the private sector needs to look beyond market price to pay farmers as the market is not stable for a reliable income. Christine McGrath, SVP and chief impact & sustainability officer, Mondelez International, WCF Chair takeaways were that a lot of the issues being discussed have been worked on for a long time, resulting in good learnings and best practices which need to be shared.
Aldo Cristiano, president of Caobisco confectionery trade association, and previous speaker at our World Confectionery Conference, reiterated this, stating that one company alone is not able to make systemic change, it has to be collective.
Meanwhile, Paul Davis, head of cocoa at Sucden spoke about EUDR and how, at its heart, its objective is to ensure EU citizens are not complicit in deforestation. Finally, Brian McKeon, SVP, National Confectioners Association, added that while the US has no current plans for similar legislation to EUDR, the EU is only one consuming market, so a collective effort is needed to combat deforestation at origin.
The next day saw the Amsterdam Sustainable Cocoa Conference begin, opening with Isabelle van Tol, head of trade for development, Netherlands Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, querying “If the cocoa trade isn’t profitable, how can it be expected to be sustainable?” Highlighting the importance of increasing farmer living income in helping to tackle deforestation and child labour as integrated issues.
Mark Hoolwerf, deputy director, Port of Amsterdam International followed on to note the importance of Amsterdam in the cocoa supply chain, how it is equipped with large processing facilities, storage companies, quality control and production machinery all located locally in the region. This enables, Hoolwerf added, for the development of cocoa to be propelled in Amsterdam.
Next came Part 2 of the ‘Trilogy on Pricing – Cash Transfers.’ “If you look at the agenda of the first World Cocoa Conference in Amsterdam, you will see a lot of topics about deforestation, child labour, but not much about living wage. I think now the community have understood that deforestation and child labour are the symptoms of a root cause, which is poverty, and the best way to address poverty is to work on those issues of living. The foundation of any strategy needs to be understanding where we are in terms of deforestation,” Ryan McNeill, Nestle income,” Michel Arrion, executive director, International Cocoa Organisation opened the session with.
This session was focused on how this can be best achieved through different methods of cash transfers. Jeroen De Lange, founder and CEO, 100Weeks, put forward his case for direct, regular, and unconditional transfers to the women of the household, rather than to the farmer; “Give money directly to women, they know how to use it,” he said. 100Weeks transfers the women €8 every Monday for 100 weeks and has found that 83 per cent of the women, using the Multidimensional Poverty Index, were no longer poor after the programme, and 13 per cent more families are food secure, as of the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale.
Alternatively, Rik Habraken, senior advisor, KIT Royal Tropical Institute, argued for conditional transfers, based on practices such as pruning, agroforestry, and schooling. These transfers are distributed
in four chunks, the first two to the men, and the second two to the women. From this practice, Habraken had observed that more cash to the man makes cocoa more important to the household, whereas cash to the women makes it less so, meaning that the households are less reliant on the unstable income of cocoa. Sarah-Franklin Schaar, project manager, ETG/Beyond Beans Foundation explained how their initiative offered €50 to men and €50 to women twice a year, but Tiffany Talsma, team lead, Alliance Biodiversity and CIAT, countered that cash transfers are only beneficial in some communities. She said that communities in poorer or water insecure areas preferred non-divisible public goods such as health clinics, schools, roads or boreholes, which are exchanged for deforestation targets being met.
Overall, it was evident that the issues of child labour, farmer pay, deforestation and as an extension EUDR, need to be viewed holistically and not as separate problems. There are many dialogues and possible solutions being suggested, with many successfully implemented, so it is crucial that events such as this pose a platform for them to be shared, exchanged and productively debated in order profitability and equitability in cocoa.
