Cocoa

Cocoa is bought as beans for grinding or as semi-finished products (butter, liquor, powder and nibs) for chocolate and confectionery manufacture. Bean quality is established by cut test: the proportion of well-fermented beans against slaty, mouldy and insect-damaged counts. Cocoa is EUDR-regulated, and cadmium limits under (EU) 2021/1323 constrain sourcing from parts of South America.

Why go through us rather than buying direct

Agricultural supply is spread across thousands of small exporters, and the quality of a cargo is decided at origin rather than when it lands. Buy direct with nobody checking and you find out about the missing phytosanitary certificate, or the aflatoxin reading, at the border. By then the money has gone and the cargo is sitting on demurrage. We verify the supplier, fix the specification in the contract, and inspect before anything ships.

One thing to watch. Cocoa carries both EUDR obligations and cadmium limits under Regulation (EU) 2021/1323. Origin selection determines whether a cargo can lawfully be placed on the EU market.

We source this from the countries below. Origin is not a preference. It decides which phytosanitary and licensing rules apply, what specification is achievable, how the freight routes and what sanctions exposure you take on. We choose it against your compliance and delivery needs, not on price alone.

Put the parameters below in your brief with a tolerance against each, not a single target figure. A specification without tolerances gives the contract nothing to fall back on when a cargo lands marginally out.

• Moisture content (%)
• Bean count or screen size
• Defect count per sample (cut test)
• Foreign matter (%)
• Volatile oil content (% for spices)
• ASTA cleanliness specification
• Colour and aroma profile
• Mycotoxin limits (ppb)
• Cut test: well fermented, slaty, mouldy (%)
• Bean count per 100 g
• Free fatty acid (%)
• Cadmium content (mg/kg)
• Fat content (%)

We appoint an independent inspection agency at origin. They check quantity, quality against what was contracted, and the condition of the packaging, all before the shipment is released for loading. That certificate is what any later claim rests on.

Send us a brief covering the points below. Within one working day we will tell you whether we can fulfil it, how we would approach it, what paperwork it needs and roughly how long it takes.

• Which grade of Cocoa you need, with tolerances
• Volume, and whether this is one shipment or a regular requirement
• Where it needs to land, which port, and by when
• Any certification you need: organic, Halal, Kosher, RSPO, FSC or other
• Preferred Incoterms and how you want to pay
• Packaging format and any labelling