Anticipation builds for Amsterdam’s Chocoa cocoa event, combining with week-long sector celebrations

Chocoa, one of the largest cocoa and chocolate events fully focusing on sustainable and quality cocoa and chocolate, is preparing its 12th edition, returning to the capital of the Netherlands in a full live format.

The event, between  7-11 February 2024), will be the first time that the Company Behind Chocoa brings together a large number of events for cocoa and chocolate professionals in an overarching Amsterdam Cocoa Week program, including Chocoa itself, the World Cocoa Foundation Partnership Meeting, The Cacao of Excellence Award Ceremonies, the Women in Cocoa and Chocolate Network (WINCC) and many other events. The organisers expect around 2,000 professionals, ranging from cocoa producers to top level management of cocoa and chocolate brands, as well as many machine makers. All events take place in the Beurs van Berlage, city centre of Amsterdam, 5-11 February .

Like previous editions, the program of Chocoa has various features. Chocoa opens with the Trade Fair, filled with 100 booths where you can meet cocoa suppliers from different countries of origin and buyers of cocoa and service providers. The Trade Fair runs for three days. On the second day, parallel to the Trade Fair, the Amsterdam Sustainable Cocoa Conference and the Chocolate Makers’ Forum kick off, both in a two-day program for respectively professionals working in mainstream and specialty cocoa and chocolate.

During the Conference new sustainability topics will be addressed, such as cash transfers as alternative for increasing cocoa prices and effective measure to reduce child labor, investing in cocoa farming families’ health as catalyst for living income and child protection, and commercially sustainable cocoa from the perspective of procurement. The Chocolate Maker’s Forum discusses four important topics for craft chocolate makers, on how to differentiate (from mainstream), what are future trends in chocolate, what is the impact of EU regulations on SMEs, and the impact of innovation and creativity in business models.

Chocoa closes with a chocolate festival in the weekend, to raise consumer awareness on ‘good cocoa and better chocolate’ and taste chocolates from a large varieties of countries.

You can find more information on Chocoa and the Amsterdam Cocoa Week on their respective websites: www.chocoa.nl and www.amsterdamcocoaweek.nl