As Cocoa Prices Soar, German Hypermarket Debuts ChoViva Alt Chocolate Products

German hypermarket chain Kaufland has released two sweet treats using Planet A Foods’s cocoa-free chocolate alternative, ChoViva.

As cocoa prices become untenable for both consumers and businesses, one supermarket is tackling the situation with a climate- and pocket-friendly alternative.

German retailer Kaufland (owned by Lidl parent company Schwarz Group) has partnered with local startup Planet A Foods to use its cocoa-free chocolate in two new products.

Launched under K-Classic, Kaufland’s private-label brand, the Waffle Bites and Neopolitans contain ChoViva, a chocolate alternative made from a base of sunflower seeds.

“Cocoa cultivation is partly associated with ecological and social challenges,” said Tobias Stricker, head of purchasing for confectionery and pastries at Kaufland. “ChoViva’s chocolate alternative is a true revolution in the market and completely rethinks a traditional product.”

Kaufland looks to cocoa-free chocolate for climate gains

This isn’t the first time Kaufland has retailed a product featuring cocoa-free chocolate. Last year, Katjes International introduced a dairy-free version of its famous peanut dragées, Treets, with ChoViva on its shelves.

To make its beanless chocolate, Planet A Foods combines a base of sunflower seeds with sugar and plant-based fats in a proprietary fermentation process. The resulting ingredient can be used as a 1:1 replacement of conventional chocolate or in hybrid formulations.

For Kaufland, partnering with the startup is a sustainability play. The industry is linked to vast amounts of deforestation, thanks to the widespread use of palm oil in its production and rising demand – it is directly responsible for 94% and 80% of deforestation in Ghana and Ivory Coast.

Meanwhile, dark chocolate alone generates more emissions than all other foods barring beef, while each bar of chocolate requires 1,700 litres of water on average.

ChoViva produces up to 91% fewer emissions than traditional chocolate, with its lifetime carbon footprint estimated at 1.3 to 2.4 kg of CO2 per kg of product, according to an independent life-cycle assessment by CarbonCloud. It also uses 94% less water than it takes to cultivate cocoa beans.

The use of sunflower seeds fits into its local sourcing strategy. “The solution of producing a chocolate alternative from domestic raw materials is a real game-changer in many ways – one that we are very happy to use for our own-brand products,” said Stricker.

The retailer said it follows the Planetary Health Diet’s guidelines, encouraging people to eat in a manner better for themselves and the planet. By 2034, it plans to reduce its forest, land use and agriculture emissions across the supply chain by 43% (from a 2024 baseline). ChoViva’s outsized benefits on water (and land) use and emissions will contribute to that goal, as well as its 2050 net-zero target.

Why cocoa-free chocolate will soon be everywhere

ChoViva is already present in over 20 products in Germany, Austria and Switzerland since entering the market 12 months ago, including with Lindt, Piasten, Lambertz, Griesson-de Beukelaer, Peter Kölln, Lufthansa, Deutsche Bahn, and Seidl Confiserie. Apart from Kaufland, it has also been part of private-label offerings from retailers such as Rewe (and its subsidiary Penny), Edeka, Aldi, and Lidl.

These products are already available in 42,000 stores, but the company is planning launches in the UK and France this year too, with the US and Asia in its sights as well.

Thanks to climate change, global cocoa stocks have slumped to their lowest in a decade, while their prices have reached all-time highs. Ivory Coast and Ghana – the two largest producers – are the biggest victims of extreme weather, crop diseases, and reduced plantations in favour of illegal gold mining.

In fact, a new report shows that the climate crisis has made cocoa one of six commodities coming into the UK from countries vulnerable to environmental threats. In fact, in 2023, 77% of cocoa came from nations whose biodiversity was deemed not to be intact.

All this has hurt the bottom lines of giants like Hershey’s, whose profit forecast for 2025 is below analysts’ expectations. Some are now turning to cocoa-free or cell-based chocolate, like Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest cocoa manufacturer.

It has opened up opportunities for alternative chocolate, a burgeoning industry populated by the likes of Voyage Foods, Win-Win, Cellva, California Cultured, Compound Foods, Nukoko, and Endless Food Co, among many others.

Planet A Foods itself is working to expand its annual production capacity from 2,000 tonnes to over 15,000 tonnes, an effort supported by a $30M Series B round in December. “Our mission remains unchanged: to provide sustainable food ingredients that are decoupled from price-volatile and limited resources such as cocoa,” co-founder and CEO Maximilian Marquart said at the time.