Home / Business and Economy / Cocoa Crisis: Lab-Grown Flavor Offers Sweet Relief
Cocoa Crisis: Lab-Grown Flavor Offers Sweet Relief
21 Jan
Summary
- Cocoa prices hit an all-time high due to climate-related crop failures.
- A new food-tech company is creating cocoa powder from seeds and grains.
- This cocoa-free alternative could significantly reduce chocolate production costs.
Global "chocflation" has left consumers with a bitter taste as cocoa prices, driven by climate-induced droughts in West Africa, reached an all-time high in 2024. Although prices have since fallen, they remain elevated. Singapore-based startup Prefer is offering a sweet solution with PreferChoc, a cocoa-free flavor made from fermented and roasted seeds and grains. This innovation, co-founded by Jake Berber and Ding Jie Tan in 2022, bypasses the need for traditional cocoa beans.
PreferChoc is designed to be blended into chocolate products, potentially reducing manufacturers' cocoa powder costs by up to 50%. Berber anticipates strong market receptivity, especially from price-sensitive consumers, noting that up to 50% inclusion of PreferChoc in hybrid products does not alter the flavor. The company's coffee substitute, launched in 2025 and available in Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines, has already demonstrated significant cost reductions for businesses.
The company expects to launch PreferChoc commercially in 2026. Beyond cost savings, PreferChoc offers substantial environmental benefits. Life cycle analyses suggest its production emits significantly less carbon dioxide equivalent than traditional coffee and chocolate. This aligns with efforts to combat deforestation, which is heavily linked to cocoa cultivation in regions like Ivory Coast and Ghana.
Gosker of the Good Food Institute highlights fermentation-derived foods as a major opportunity, noting the space efficiency of bioreactors. PreferChoc utilizes scalable staple ingredients like rice and chickpeas, avoiding price and availability impacts on their own markets. Other companies, such as Germany's Planet A Foods and the UK's Nukoko, are also developing cocoa alternatives.
Significant investment is still needed to scale up fermentation infrastructure, particularly in Asia Pacific, where capacity is currently concentrated in Europe and the US. Prefer has raised $7 million and is seeking further funding to build a production factory, with plans to expand into other ingredients like vanilla and hazelnut that face supply chain disruptions. Berber emphasizes a collaborative approach, aiming to create hybrid products that offer consumers the same taste at a lower cost.
