The idea of kōkōjoo was born in 2018. Our founder was working as a consultant for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) at the International Green Week (IGW) to present sustainable value chains in the cocoa sector.

He took on this role during his doctoral thesis on:

“Security and economic governance for the promotion of human security in West Africa”.

You can read more of his academic work for example in this international law essay.

During this consulting activity, he realised once again that conventional cocoa processing uses only 20% of the fruit, namely the cocoa beans. This was the starting point to develop the brand KOKOJOO and to use the whole fruit to produce innovative products. One year later, he presented Pelure de Cacao (now: kōkōjoo original), the first product of the brand KOKOJOO, at the IGW 2019 in the hall of the BMZ.