Bia Analytical launches Cocoa Consortium to strengthen fraud detection and transparency

Bia Analytical has launched a Cocoa Consortium designed to strengthen fraud detection and improve transparency across the global cocoa supply chain, as market volatility and structural supply pressures continue to challenge the sector.

The initiative brings together companies from across the cocoa value chain to collaborate using shared intelligence, rapid testing technologies and advanced analytics, with the aim of improving early risk detection and product authenticity controls.

The launch follows a period of extreme instability in cocoa markets. Prices surged to historic highs in 2024 amid poor harvests in West Africa, which produces around 70 percent of the world’s cocoa. Although the International Cocoa Organization has since reported improved production expectations, it continues to highlight ongoing volatility and structural risks, including climate impacts, ageing trees and disease pressures.

Against this backdrop, Bia Analytical said collective action is needed to protect brands and consumers from economically motivated adulteration and misrepresentation.

Bia Analytical CEO Simon Cole said:

The cocoa supply chain is under growing pressure from fraud, volatility, and structural complexity. No single business can solve that in isolation.

The Cocoa Consortium brings committed operators together to raise the bar for authenticity and risk detection across the sector. By combining shared intelligence, advanced analytics, and rapid testing, we can identify threats earlier, act faster, and protect both brands and consumers. This is an important and genuinely exciting step toward a more transparent and resilient global cocoa market.”

The consortium will use Bia Analytical’s Biametric™ Risk Dashboard alongside portable and laboratory-based testing methods to help businesses detect authenticity risks more quickly and respond before issues escalate.

Participating companies will receive access to the dashboard, early alerts on emerging risks, quarterly updates on global cocoa trends and early access to new fraud detection capabilities. Members will also contribute representative cocoa samples to support the development of enhanced authenticity testing models.

The company is inviting organisations across the cocoa sector, including traders, processors, manufacturers and retailers, to join the consortium as the industry seeks more collaborative approaches to managing authenticity, traceability and risk.

For more information or to join the Cocoa Consortium, contact: [email protected]