How Do You Save the World’s Chocolate Supply? You Reinvent Chocolate
A facts-only brief, written by a local AI model from this article in The Wall Street Journal, October 30, 2026. It may contain mistakes, and it is not the article: the full story is at wsj.com.
Startups in the U.S., Europe, Israel, and Asia are developing lab-grown cocoa and agricultural waste substitutes to address a global cocoa bean supply crisis. Celleste, a startup led by CEO Michal Beressi Golomb, is using pharmaceutical techniques to cultivate cocoa-bean cells, aiming for U.S. regulatory approval by 2028 to sell cocoa butter and powder to manufacturers. Competitor California Cultured, headed by science and technology vice president Steven Lang, is also growing bean cells with high flavanol content and plans to launch products by 2028. In the near term, Voyage Foods is producing a chocolate substitute from roasted grapeseeds, sunflower protein, and oils, with a new Ohio facility capable of producing 10,000 metric tons annually.
Background
- Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicates candy prices have risen 44% since 2021.
- Cocoa bean prices peaked above $12,000 per metric ton in 2024, up from $2,000 to $3,000 in the previous decade, before stabilizing around $5,000 to $6,000.
- Cargill, the world’s largest agricultural-commodities company, is an investor in Voyage Foods and its global distributor.
- Hershey Company changed labeling on products like Almond Joy to “chocolate candy” after incorporating non-milk fats, though a spokeswoman stated the company has no active work in cocoa substitutes or lab-grown cocoa.
Read the full article at wsj.com
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