AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands – Tradin Organic Agriculture B.V. (“Tradin Organic”), headquartered in Amsterdam and part of the SunOpta International Foods Group, announces the official start of operations at Crown of Holland, its new cocoa processing facility in Middenmeer, in the North of the Netherlands.
The new facility is dedicated entirely to processing globally sourced certified and specialty cocoa beans with an annual processing capacity of 9.000 MT. Crown of Holland ’s key feature is a roasting method known as ‘Whole-bean roasting’, which in combination with the quality of single-origin cocoa beans allows the development of customizable flavour profiles in cocoa liquors and powders.
The sustainable facility has been operating since September 2013, and the company’s existing cocoa volume has by now been completely transferred to Crown of Holland. The official festive opening with international guests from the cocoa industry will take place on 14 November 2013.
Gerard Versteegh, President of the SunOpta International Foods Group commented; “Thanks to its highly efficient processing equipment, manageable size and smart layout, the plant has the flexibility to easily accommodate all sizes of jobs from short production runs to tolling agreements for bigger tonnages.
This makes Crown of Holland the ideal partner for smaller niche customers and large processors looking into outsourcing their certified cocoa production.”
The experienced R&D team at Crown of Holland combines parameters of whole-bean roasting with various bean origins to create a vast range of different flavour profiles and offers tailor-made cocoa products to its customers.
Crown of Holland is located 40km north of Amsterdam’s port, known to be the world’s no. 1 cocoa port, in a sustainable business park, Agriport A7.
The plant has been built using the latest in environmentally friendly building materials and technologies. A vital element of Agriport A7’s concept is the stimulation of sustainable closed-loop systems of re-use of residuals and by-products amongst the companies, aligns perfectly with Tradin Organic’s sustainability principles.
As SunOpta, a US Nasdaq listed company, had announced since March, expanding its organic and specialty cocoa business to serve the specialty chocolate industry with certified and specialty cocoa products had been a strategic decision.
Gerard Versteegh, President of the SunOpta International Foods Group explained; “Vertically integrating into our own dedicated cocoa facility will allow us to have increased control over our business and expand our margins, especially as we increase throughput with our competitive tolling fees.
Organic and specialty cocoa products remain a key category for the International Foods Group, and we anticipate above average growth prospects in this segment of the market.”
