Cocoa

CBIL brokers cocoa across the bean trade and the pressed products that come out of it, connecting origin exporters, cooperatives and grinders with chocolate manufacturers, confectioners, bakers and cosmetic formulators. Beans are contracted on the cut test — 300 beans sliced lengthwise and counted for mould, slaty, insect-damaged and germinated — with Good Fermented and Fair Fermented the trade standards, alongside bean count per 100 g, moisture at 7.5% maximum and free fatty acids at 1.75% or below where the beans are destined for pressing. Processed cocoa is written differently again: butter on FFA, melting point and colour; powder on fat content, pH and alkalisation; liquor on fineness and fat. Prices reference the ICE London contract in sterling per tonne and ICE New York in dollars, with origin differentials on top, plus the Living Income Differential on Ghanaian and Ivorian beans. European-bound cocoa additionally requires EUDR geolocation and due-diligence documentation, which for smallholder-sourced West African beans is now a gating item rather than a formality.