What are the main export locations of cocoa beans processed in the Netherlands?
The Dutch cocoa import industry is a result of the large processing industry which is the main destination for the imported cocoa beans. This processing industry takes almost 50% of all the imported cocoa beans and processes the beans into the fractions; cocoa butter and cocoa liquor. Cocoa butter is mainly used as a base ingredient in producing chocolate bars and is mainly imported by Germany, the UK, and Switzerland from the Netherlands.
Figure 3 Cocoa butter exports from the Netherlands destination markets 2020 (Tridge 2021)
Another fraction of cocoa processing is cocoa powder, which is then a granulated form of cocoa liquor. This ingredient is mostly used as an industrial additive for any product with cocoa flavor except bars and other traditional chocolate products. The main importer of cocoa powder from the Netherlands was the USA with 46.3% of the total export value from the Netherlands in 2020.
