Côte d’Ivoire produces roughly 40% of the world’s cocoa — more than any other country. The Bondoukou region in the eastern cocoa belt is where we source our raw cocoa powder and cold-pressed cocoa butter. Both are unrefined: fermented and sun-dried at origin in the traditional method, not industrial-oven processed and not alkalised.
Why Bondoukou
The Ivorian cocoa belt extends across the southern and eastern half of the country. Bondoukou, in the east near the Ghanaian border, is one of the longest-established cocoa-growing zones. The region’s cooperatives have traditionally focused on quality fermentation (the step that determines flavour development and antioxidant retention) over yield maximisation — the opposite of the industrial commodity model that dominates cocoa elsewhere in the country.
Bondoukou Cocoa Collective
The Bondoukou Cocoa Collective is our partner cooperative. Beans are fermented in wooden boxes for 6–7 days, sun-dried on raised drying tables (not on bare ground), then sorted by hand. The fermented dried beans are cold-pressed at origin; the press cake is milled to fine cocoa powder, and the expressed butter is filtered and packaged unrefined. No alkalisation (so the powder retains its full polyphenol content), no deodorisation (so the butter retains its characteristic scent).
Cocoa farming & certification
Cocoa is one of the few ingredients in our catalog with available USDA NOP and EU Organic certification. The Bondoukou cooperative holds certified-organic status for a portion of its production; we route certified lots when buyers require continuous organic supply. Conventional (non-certified) lots are also available at a lower price point. See certification status for our honest mapping.
Export logistics
Cocoa ships from Côte d’Ivoire to Cotonou by land transit (approximately 600 km, 3–5 days). Phytosanitary certification is renewed in Benin before export. Both cocoa powder and cocoa butter are temperature-sensitive; we ship in insulated packaging for orders shipped during West African dry season.
Origin photography — coming soon
This page is the structure; the field photography from our most recent origin trip is being prepared and will be added shortly. We do not use stock imagery here — only photographs taken on-site by us or by our cooperative partners with explicit consent.
Ingredients we source from this region
Cocoa powder wholesale · Raw cocoa butter wholesale
Request a wholesale quote for any ingredient from this region, or email us directly with your sourcing question. We respond within two business days.