Agribusiness Olam to Open Cocoa Powder Plant Near Chicago

Singapore-based agribusiness Olam International is currently constructing a new 183,000-sq-ft cocoa powder manufacturing plant in Bolingbrook, IL that is slated to open by mid-2018, a company spokesperson and a government official told Reuters in a report published Tuesday.

Levi Hansel, a spokesperson for Olam, told the news organization that the company was in the process of building the facility, but would not offer further details.

Olam is “one of the world’s leading processors of cocoa powder, cocoa mass (aka cocoa liquor), and cocoa butter,” according to the company’s website. The Singapore firm acquired Archer Daniel Midland’s cocoa business in 2015 and currently operates 12 cocoa processing sites globally that have a combined capacity of 700,000 MT.

In April 2017, Olam opened a Cocoa Innovation Center (CIC) in WIllowbrook, IL to support its clients in North America.

“The North American market continues to see growing demand for products containing cocoa as exemplified by the recent projection that the U.S. chocolate market’s retail value sales will grow by 9.9% from 2016 to 2021,” said Matthias Richer, vice president of cocoa for North America at Olam, in a 2017 press release announcing the opening of the CIC.

The Chicagoland region is home to a number of chocolate and confectionery manufacturers.

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