Barry Callebaut Group has launched two varieties of chocolate sweetened with cacaofruit as part of its mission to advance cocoa sustainability and drive innovation in the category.

Barry Callebaut has opened a state-of-the-art processing unit at its Zone 4C Société Africaine de Cacao plant in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Olam sought to purchase BT Cocoa to capitalize on Asia’s trajectory to become the largest global consumer of cocoa powder.

Puratos Group has introduced its Cacao-Trace sustainable cocoa sourcing program to Papua New Guinea. 

The European Cocoa Association elected Steven Retzlaff, president of global cocoa at Barry Callebaut, as chairman during its last General Assembly in Zurich.

In February, Associate Editor Alyse Thompson visited Finca El Cacao, a 2,500-hectare cocoa plantation in Nicaragua owned and operated by Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG. The company, eager to open up its supply chain and highlight its progress in the Central American country, brought Alyse and German journalists to the plantation to show them how they do things.

Lindt & Sprüngli Schweiz AG has announced plans to invest more than CHF 30 million ($32.25 million) in expanding and increasing the capacity of its production facility in Olten, Switzerland, this year.

After 10 years of working as an engineer and a business consultant, Joachim-Sanon determined it was time to return to Haiti. After researching the country’s cacao heritage and the art of chocolate making, she and her husband, Andreas Symietz, invested their life savings to start a chocolate factory, Les Chocolateries Askanya, in rural Haiti.