Revalorization of cacao food waste
Turning overlooked cacao side streams into valuable food ingredients while creating additional income for farmers
Only a small part of the cacao fruit is currently valorised commercially. While the beans are used to produce chocolate and cocoa products, other parts of the fruit, including the fresh cacao pulp surrounding the beans, are largely underutilised.
Kumasi Commodity Innovations is developing a new value chain that gives these overlooked resources a purpose. By collecting and processing cacao pulp close to the source in Côte d’Ivoire, the project aims to transform a side stream of the existing cocoa supply chain into high-quality food ingredients for the European market.
The approach creates value without requiring farmers to grow additional crops or use additional agricultural land. Farmers continue producing cacao beans as usual, while the pulp that would otherwise remain unused can become an additional source of income.
Kumasi Drinks (our original company name) which started with cacao fruit beverages, a B-2-C product, has evolved into a broader platform for upcycled ingredients for consumer and b-2-b products. That’s why we changed our name to: Kumasi Commodity Innovations, we do more than creating a b-2-c soda.
What the project is developing
With support from EIT Food, Kumasi is further developing and scaling the processing of cacao fruit into stable, versatile ingredients that can be used by food and beverage manufacturers.
The project focuses on several key challenges required to bring cacao fruit ingredients from an emerging innovation towards a commercially scalable ingredient:
- optimising processing and preservation methods;
- developing a compound (a concentrated cacao fruit juice ingredient suitable for industrial applications)
- validating different applications with potential B2B customers;
- strengthening the supply chain and processing infrastructure at origin
- demonstrating a commercially viable model that can be scaled across the cacao sector.
An important part of the innovation is to process the fruit as close as possible to where cacao is grown. This helps preserve the quality of a highly perishable raw material while ensuring that more processing and economic value remain in Côte d’Ivoire.
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