The Netherlands imported 991,000 tons of cocoa beans in 2017, value at €2.2 billion representing an average annual growth rate of 12% over the years 2012-2014.
Until 2016, the Netherlands could claim to be the largest exporter of cocoa beans in Europe; however, they have since slipped into second place, after Belgium, which became the largest European exporter of cocoa beans in 2017, with 237,000 metric tonnes. The Dutch were able to increase their exports slightly in the last five years, achieving an annual increase of +1.8% in volume. The country now can boast a market share of 47% of the total European re-exports.
The Dutch remain such an important market for importing cocoa beans partly because of the impressive logistical infrastructure. A number of large business such as ADM, Cargill and ECOM Dutch Cocoa have large grinding facilities near the port of Amstersterdam, making it the largest cocoa port in the world. An entire ecosystem of large scale value-added processing facilities have been established, and this will not change in the short term.
Despite a drop of about 2.5%, Germany is still by far the most important market for Dutch chocolate re-exports, taking 67% of the market in 2017.
Now there is a much higher demand among the Dutch people for premium products and flavoured chocolate. An example of this is the premium fair-trade brand of chocolate Tonys Chocolonely.
Research shows that in 2015, 8.8 per cent of the chocolate bars sold in supermarkets in the Netherlands were bars from Tony’s Chocolonely. In 2019, this figure had increased to just under 19 per cent.
