Cocoa: Characteristics
Fermentation, fat and the cut test buyers rely on
What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | 5.23 Mt of cocoa beans (2024) | Output fell from 5.68 Mt in 2020 after poor West African harvests, disease and ageing trees. Côte d'Ivoire alone grew 36.1%. | FAOSTAT 2024 |
| Inventory and stock levels | world stocks 1.309 Mt at end-2024/25, 28.2% of grindings or about 3.4 months | The 2023/24 deficit of 492,000 t cut the stocks-to-grindings ratio to 26.4%, the trigger for the price record. Exchange-certified stocks sit in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg and US ports. Côte d'Ivoire's regulator inventoried 100,000 t of unsold main-crop beans in January 2026. India holds no public cocoa stock. | ICCO Quarterly Bulletins, Feb and Aug 2026; Ecofin Agency, March 2026 |
| Capacity utilisation | India grinding about 60% utilised (about 99,500 t a year of capacity); world figure not published | Côte d'Ivoire has more than 700,000 t of grinding capacity. Global grinders pass bean costs through cost-plus contracts, so high bean prices in 2024-25 cut grindings rather than margins. | Grant Thornton Bharat; CBI 2023; Barry Callebaut FY2024/25 |
| Geographic and producer concentration | Côte d'Ivoire 36.1%, top-3 (Côte d'Ivoire, Indonesia, Ghana) 58.3%, HHI 1,748; grinding led by Barry Callebaut, Cargill and ofi | Two West African neighbours supply almost half of beans. Grinding is concentrated in three firms; ofi alone held about 16% of world processing after buying ADM Cocoa in 2014. A current top-5 grinder share is not published. | FAOSTAT 2024; ConfectioneryNews, Dec 2014 |
| Supply elasticity | very low: new trees take about 5-7 years to bear fully | Farmers can only raise output quickly through better care and fertiliser, which low farmgate prices discourage. West African state-set farmgate prices (Côte d'Ivoire 2,800 CFA/kg main crop, cut to 1,200 for the 2026 mid-crop) blunt the price signal further. | Geman; Ecofin Agency, March 2026 |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | expansion led by Ecuador and other Latin American producers; no world CapEx figure | Ecuador's yield rose from 622 kg/ha in 2020 to 745 kg/ha in 2024 on high-yield CCN-51 clones, and output reached about 404,000 t. Well-run estates reach 2-2.5 t/ha. West African replanting against swollen-shoot virus is the main long-run variable. | FAOSTAT 2024; Hardman Agribusiness via ConfectioneryNews, 2016 |
| Logistics and export flows | most beans are exported; world bean exports worth $15.3 billion (2024) | Beans ship in bags or bulk from Abidjan, San Pedro, Tema and Guayaquil to Amsterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg and the US. The Netherlands took 23.7% and Malaysia 18.3% of bean imports by value. The EU deforestation regulation applies from 30 December 2026 and requires plot-level traceability. | UN Comtrade 2024; content_v2 cocoa chain |
Material characteristics Agricultural / soft commodity
Cocoa beans are valued for their fat (cocoa butter) and flavour. Proper fermentation and drying set flavour and keep beans safe in storage. Buyers grade beans by moisture, a cut test for defects, bean size and fat content. Butter hardness and free fatty acids decide how well the butter tempers in chocolate.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moisture | 7.5% maximum | Wetter beans go mouldy in storage and shipment | ICCO / ISO 2451 (indicative) |
| Cut test | Grade I: at most 3% mouldy, 3% slaty and 3% insect-damaged beans | Slaty (unfermented) and mouldy beans spoil flavour; grades set premiums and exchange deliverability | ISO 2451 / ICCO grading (indicative) |
| Bean count | about 100 beans per 100 g for standard grade | Larger beans give more nib and less shell per tonne | trade practice (indicative) |
| Fat (cocoa butter) content | about 50-57% of the nib; couverture contains about 32-39% cocoa butter | Butter is the most valuable fraction; yield drives grinder economics | CBI; trade literature (indicative) |
| Free fatty acids in butter | 1.75% maximum | High FFA softens butter and causes chocolate bloom | Codex Alimentarius standard for cocoa butter (indicative) |
| Shell content | about 11-13% of bean weight | Shell is waste for the grinder; lower shell means higher yield | trade literature (indicative) |