Dossier
Cocoa
The Netherlands processes more cocoa than any other country in the world, and cocoa dominates the trading relationship between the Netherlands and Ghana. The consumption of chocolate in Europe and the United States is increasing every year. In countries such as China, India and Brazil, too, demand is rising.
Over the next few years, it is expected that an extra million tonnes of cocoa will be necessary. The present annual production is around four million tonnes. To ensure cocoa production remains sufficient for many more years, cultivation will have to be intensified and made more sustainable. This poses important challenges in dealing with increasingly impoverished soils and in maintaining biodiversity. From 2025 onwards, all chocolate in the Netherlands will have to be certified.
Wageningen University & Research and sustainable cocoa
The Netherlands, being a world player in the cocoa trade, performs an important role in realising sustainable chocolate. In 2011, several leading stakeholders such as Mars, HEMA and Plus supermarkets signed an ambitious agreement aiming to achieve fully sustainable cocoa consumption in the Netherlands by 2025.
By carrying out action-oriented research into ways of introducing sustainability and measuring the outcome, Wageningen University & Research is pooling various efforts to make the import of cocoa more sustainable. This will provide some insight into the present situation: how sustainable is the cocoa supply chain in actual fact? What advantages does sustainability offer farmers, such as those in Ghana? We are working with certification authorities, traders and NGOs to investigate the effect of certification procedures on the amount of trade, the prices and players, the environment and society.
Source of cocoa beans
Wageningen Food Safety Research is doing research into where cocoa beans come from. This will reveal whether a product has been traded responsibly. A knowledge of cocoa bean sources also makes it easier to control food fraud.
News
Experts
Projects
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Cocoa crop improvement, farms and markets (CoCIfaM)
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Chocolate authenticity
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Tracking en tracing hout en cacao (HD3625)
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Biological Control of Pathogenic Fungi and Oomycetes
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Capacity development in Cocoa value chains & Sustainable development
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Verduurzaming van Nederlandse cacao en koffie importen: synergie tussen praktijk, beleid, strategie en kennis
- Cocoa crop improvement, farms and markets: a science-based approach to sustainably improving farmer food security in West Africa
- Helping Poor Farmers Grow Money: Sustainable Cocoa Productivity and Socio-Economic Impacts of International Investments in Sierra Leone
- Digital Farmer Field School for training cocoa farmers in Sierra Leone
- RSO Internship in Ecuador/Amazon on cocoa/sustainable livelihood
- Multi-stakeholder workshop on knowledge sharing , Ghana
- Seas of Change
- Information transparency system as a low-cost scalable solution to farmers' access to credit and services in Ghana
- UTZ Impact studies
- Cocoa Soils: Sustainable intensification of cocoa production through the development and dissemination of integrated soil fertility management
Publications 2019 - 2020
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Sniffing out cocoa bean traits that persist in chocolates by PTR-MS, ICP-MS and IR-MS
Food Research International 133 (2020). - ISSN 0963-9969 -
Business processes and information systems in the Ghana cocoa supply chain: A survey study
NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences 92 (2020). - ISSN 1573-5214 -
Following cocoa beans to chocolate : The search for intrinsic characteristics
Wageningen University. Promotor(en): S.M. van Ruth, co-promotor(en): M. Alewijn. - Wageningen : Wageningen University - ISBN 9789463953610 - p. -
Protected Designation of Origin and Sustainability Characterization: The Case of PDO Cocoa Arriba
Agriculture 9 (2019)10. - ISSN 2077-0472 -
Productivity and livelihood impacts of interventions in the cocoa value chain
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Identification of Climate and Genetic Factors That Control Fat Content and Fatty Acid Composition of Theobroma cacao L. Beans
Frontiers in Plant Science 10 (2019). - ISSN 1664-462X -
Towards Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) Practices to Increase Cocoa Productivity in Cameroon
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Towards Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) Practices to Increase Cocoa Productivity in Cameroon
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Quantified soil evolution under shifting agriculture in Southern Cameroon
Frontiers in Environmental Science 7 (2019). - ISSN 2296-665X -
Melanoidins from Coffee, Cocoa, and Bread Are Able to Scavenge α-Dicarbonyl Compounds under Simulated Physiological Conditions
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 67 (2019)39. - ISSN 0021-8561 - p. 10921 - 10929.
Publications 2018 and older
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Upscaling the impact of sustainability certification initiatives; Enabling conditions and policy recommendations for regional development
The Hague : LEI, part of Wageningen UR (LEI report 2013-046) - ISBN 9789086156511 - p. -
Incentives for smallholders to enhance the production of quality cocoa beans in Ghana: the role of institutions
Wageningen University. Promotor(en): Arnold van Huis; D. Obeng-Ofori; F. Asante, co-promotor(en): Rein Haagsma. - Wageningen : Wageningen UR - ISBN 9789461738080 - p. -
Robust and confident predictor selection in metabolomics
In: Statistical Analysis of Proteomics, Metabolomics, and Lipidomics Data Using Mass Spectrometry; Frontiers in Probability and the Statistical Sciences / , Datta, S., Mertens, B.J.A.. - : Springer (Frontiers in Probability and the Statistical Sciences ) - ISBN 9783319458076 - p. 239 - 257. -
Scaling service delivery in a failed state : cocoa smallholders, Farmer Field Schools, persistent bureaucrats and institutional work in Côte d’Ivoire
International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 15 (2017)1. - ISSN 1473-5903 - p. 83 - 98. -
Cocoa farmer models and practices in Ghana and Ivory Coast
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Cocoa farming models of the future: Status, gaps and research priorities
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Triggering regime change: A comparative analysis of the performance of innovation platforms that attempted to change the institutional context for nine agricultural domains in West Africa
Agricultural Systems 165 (2018). - ISSN 0308-521X - p. 296 - 309. -
Does epicatechin contribute to the acute vascular function effects of dark chocolate? A randomized, crossover study
Molecular Nutrition & Food Research 60 (2016)11. - ISSN 1613-4125 - p. 2379 - 2386. -
Dietary epicatechin intake and 25-year risk of cardiovascular mortality: the Zutphen Elderly Study
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 104 (2016)1. - ISSN 0002-9165 - p. 58 - 64. -
Upscaling sustainability initiatives in international commodity chains : Examples from cocoa, coffee and soy value chains in the Netherlands.
Wageningen : Statutory Research Tasks Unit for Nature & the Environment (WOt-technical report 67) - p.