In our latest podcast interview, we talked to Freek van der Knaap, Van Houten’s Vice-President Vending & Beverages EMEA, about the launch of ruby as a chocolate drink powder, which is aimed at professionals working in the catering and confectionery industry.

Nate Saal is founder of CocoTerra, an all-in-one tabletop chocolate making machine that can produce real chocolate in the home, from conching to cooling in two hours, with the help of digital recipes and a guidance app. With the company now taking pre-orders, we caught up with Saal for an update on his innovation since the last time ConfectioneryNews spoke to him in September 2019.

Ethan Budiansky, the World Cocoa Foundation’s Director of Environment, shares some of the findings from the CFI’s latest reports and explains why ‘getting more trees in the ground’ is important.

In its latest Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI) Annual Report, Mondelēz International said it has distributed 712,771 trees across Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire in the from October 2019 to September 2020, with a total of 975,848 trees planted as part of its CFI commitment since 2018, bringing the global total to 2.2 million trees.

Paul Chibe, President and CEO of Ferrero North America, is the new Chairman of the National Confectioners Association Board of Trustees for a two-year term. In an exclusive ConfectioneryNews podcast, Chibe talks about his 30 years of experience within the confectionery and consumer products industries and why he is looking forward to his new role as Chairman at the NCA.

Ahead of his presentation at Chocoa21, Leopold Palmer from Twenty Degrees gives us the background story of Olam Cocoa’s new speciality cacao business.

UPL, a global leader in sustainable agriculture products and solutions, announced it has joined the European Cocoa Association (ECA) as an associate member. We talk to Florent Clair, UPL’s Sustainability Co-Ordinator, about the company's long history in the cocoa sector and why the time is right to commit to a more sustained environmental approach for farmers.

With Veganuary in full swing and more popular than ever, Paul Morris, Luker Chocolate’s UK sales manager, chats to ConfectioneryNews about the 123-year-old family run company and its single origin Cacao Fino de Aroma.

A wide-ranging career in the food service industry has more than adequately prepared Tracey Hughes for her current role as managing director of UK ingredients distributor Henley Bridge. In our latest podcast, she talks about the business challenges imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, how she got into the industry – and how lockdown has led to an appreciation of gardening.

Olam International’s vice president and global head of environment has called for more support from the financial sector to help change the sustainability landscape in the cocoa supply chain.