By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-02 17:03:22 | Updated at 2025-01-07 10:29:22
4 days ago
The soaring price of cocoa has led chocolate-makers to experiment with lab grown alternatives.
Mondelez International, which makes Oreo and Chips Ahoy cookies and Cadbury chocolate bars, poured funding into start-up Celleste Bio earlier this month, according to The Financial Times.
The company uses cell culture technology to grow 100 percent natural cocoa from just one or two beans.
Its aim is to 'eliminate the industry's costly reliance on fragile rainforests,' the company says on its website.
It comes as the cost of cocoa has continued to grow to dizzying heights, in a rally which started a year ago.
At their peak in April, prices for the ingredient surpassed $12,000 per tonne, which was an almost threefold increase from January, the FT reported.
Cocoa prices have soared due to poor climate and bean disease in West Africa - which is home to 70 percent of global cocoa production - which has tightened supply.
'If we don't change how we source cocoa, we won't have chocolate in two decades,' Michal Beressi Golomb, chief executive of Celleste Bio, told the outlet.
With cell-cultured cocoa, the industry 'won't need to be dependent on nature,' she added.
Mondelez International, which makes Oreo and Chips Ahoy cookies, poured funding into start-up Celleste Bio earlier this month
According to Golomb, record prices and global shortages are driving a surge of interest in cocoa alternatives.
'They're really worried about having a sustainable, consistent supply of quality cocoa,' she said. 'Everybody wants to be part of the party.'
The Israeli company, which was established in 2022, is one of several firms looking into how the industry can become less reliant on traditional cocoa production.
British food ingredients company Tate & Lyle has also partnered with BioHarvest Sciences to develop sweeteners from synthetic plant-derived molecules, the outlet reported.
Others are looking to how to create sweet treats with other natural ingredients.
Last year confectioner Fazer, which is based in Finland, rolled out a limited edition cocoa-free 'chocolate' made from local malted rye and coconut oil.
'Nearly four years ago, research told us climate change would impact the availability and price of cocoa,' Annika Porr from Fazer Confectionery's Forward Lab, told the FT.
'This year it has become a reality.'
While cocoa prices may be soaring, lab-grown alternatives still face price pressures - and the challenge of making products appeal to consumers.
Celleste Bio aims to reach cost parity with pre-2024 cocoa prices once they are in the market in 2027.
Porr added: 'Consumers really expect it to taste and feel similar to traditional cocoa. There is still work to be done.'
The soaring price of cocoa has led chocolate-makers to experiment with lab grown alternatives
Cocoa prices have soared due to poor climate and bean disease in West Africa - which is home to 70 percent of global cocoa production - which has tightened supply
'If we don't change how we source cocoa, we won't have chocolate in two decades,' said Michal Beressi Golomb, chief executive of Celleste Bio
It comes as some confectioners responded to cocoa price rises earlier this year by pitching more non-chocolate treats.
Hershey's shipped more non-cocoa treats to retailers this Easter in addition to its traditional Reese's chocolate bunnies and eggs.
It introduced a new six-pack of cookies 'n' cream bunnies, offering full-sized Kit Kat lemon crisp bars and mixing Haribo gummy bears with chocolate bars in its assortment bags.
But despite moves to pull back from a heavy reliance on cocoa, large scale confection-makers said they would not be willing to sacrifice taste in order to save money.
'Tinkering now with the recipes and flavor profiles simply because the input cost for cocoa has gone up, in my opinion, would be a mistake,' Nestlé Chief Executive Officer Mark Schneider said on call with journalists in February.
