Cargill completes cocoa facility upgrade

19 April 2012 – Cargill Cocoa and Chocolate has completed the upgrades to its cocoa processing facility following a €57 million investment.

Cargill has opened a new Centre of Expertise for cocoa and increased the cocoa powder production capacity at its facility in Wormer, the Netherlands.

Cargill can now work more closely with customers to develop new products containing cocoa ingredients, as well as partner on product development and formulation, while ensuring high standards of quality and food safety. The Centre includes an ISO 17025 accredited quality control laboratory, a pilot plant for product and process development, as well as an expanded expert taste panel to support sensorial evaluation for cocoa liquor and powder products.

The investment has also enabled Cargill to open a new, fully automated cocoa powder warehouse and distribution centre in the port of Amsterdam with very high food quality and safety standards. The warehouse will provide an efficient storage capacity, storing three times as much product per square metre as conventional warehouses in the port of Amsterdam. Better transport and capacity planning will also result in more than ten per cent reductions in CO2 emissions on existing transport and customer shipments.