Swiss chocolate giant Lindt’s expansion plans face a cocoa price roadblock 

The Lindt & Sprüngli group has just inaugurated a CHF100 million expansion of its cocoa mass production factory in Olten, Switzerland. High cocoa prices could leave the brand-new machines underutilised. Olten, a Swiss rail network hub near the capital Bern, is where cocoa beans are delivered by cargo train to the Lindt factory to be transformed. They are cleaned, roasted and crushed to form a viscous cocoa mass that is the starter material for the production of chocolate. And Lindt wants more of it. On Friday, the company inaugurated a CHF100 million (about $110 million) expansion of the cocoa mass factory. Work began in 2021 and the completed expansion boasts new production lines, a new loading bay for cocoa mass and a state-of-the-art laboratory. The company’s doubling of its cocoa mass production capacity comes at an awkward time when cocoa prices are at record highs on the global market. SWI swissinfo.ch spoke to Marco Peter, CEO of Lindt & Sprüngli Switzerland, to find out how ...