Pricing Cocoa Butter and Powder
A key ask from our clients is “Why are your products priced differently from the other supplier?”. Pricing Cocoa Butter and Powder is purely a result of three fundamental considerations. This article outlines them.
1. Input Cost of Cocoa beans
Cocoa beans are the source of natural cocoa butter and cocoa powder. The process of planting the best cocoa trees, pollinating each bud, harvesting the best pods, fermenting and drying the beans, all takes place on farm and in rural centres. The intricate process, and the risks in the period between harvest and planting, are key determinants of the farm / market price of cocoa beans.
A metric ton (1,000kgs) of cocoa beans increased from an average USD 4,100 in January 2024, to USD 13,000 in November 2024. It traded in the range of USD 9,250 – USD 9,600 as at 2025 June.
The chart above shows the trend of cocoa prices over the past years, on the commodity exchange. The price per kilogram, in the source markets, therefore, tends to be a fraction less, currently estimated at USD 7,500 per ton, or USD 7.5 per kg.
2. Yield per Ton of Input
Cocoa beans are processed into cocoa nibs and cocoa husks, as the primary sub-product and residue respectively. The Cocoa mass is further processed into cocoa butter, cocoa powder or cocoa liquour.
Some studies indicate that each 100 kilograms of cocoa yields at most 40kgs of butter and 40kgs of powder.
The yield ratio of 100:40:40 above, implies that 2.5kgs of cocoa makes 1kg of either product. However, there will always be variations in cocoa mass content in the beans. The reasons include farm conditions (rains, pollination and general handling) as well as quality of the fermentation process. Therefore, 3kgs of cocoa beans may be required to make 1kg of cocoa butter and 1kg of cocoa powder.
In otherwords, the input cost of USD 7.5 X 3 or USD 22.5 is distributed over 1kg of cocoa butter and 1kg of cocoa powder.
3. Manufacturing costs and logistics
The final cost category to consider is what the manufacturer or processing company needs to spend to bring products to market. They need to cater for salaries of workers, utilities such as water and electricity, packaging of products, transportation, state taxes and more. The product is surcharged 40 – 80% or in between. In otherwords, every USD 1.45 of input cost may include surcharge as much as USD 0.45 per unit, to cater for operations.
In conclusion, using the above example, the gross cost of inputs used would be as much as USD 7.5 X 1.45, or USD 10.9 per kg of beans. Therefore, the combined sum of USD 10.9 X 3, or USD 30.3, is recoverable from the combined 1 kg of cocoa butter and 1kg of cocoa powder.
Setting the price of products
From the section above we have seen how the combined price of 1kg of cocoa powder and 1kg of cocoa butter would build to a total of USD 30.3. It is necessary to apportion this total cost between the two products.
A good convention is to assign the price based on the alternative characteristics of each product. These can be (i) the market demand and (ii) the shelf life or perishability of the product. Further, (iii) the alternative uses of the product and (iv) existance of substitutes for the product.
Aadrea Essentials pricing option
Our pricing for Cocoa Butter and Cocoa Powder follows a simple 70:30 ratio of input cost. The price stucture is considerate of the needs of buyer, but equally alive to the cost of input and alternative uses of each product.
Is your supplier getting you the right product?
As a general rule of thumb, if the product seems too underpriced, it probably is ” that cheap”!. If your supplier is offering you a bit of heaven at knockoff prices, you may be getting a raw deal!
Similarly, an overpriced product does not imply a good quality product.
Quality of product matters, to give you premium result for your consumption needs. Understanding pricing is but one step on a journey to a quality life.
From your quality supplier,
Aadrea Essentials
