In 2023 we celabrate 100 years JS COCOA, or better put: 100 years Jan Schoemaker Cacao. Still in Zaandam, with the same circular business model since the beginning and always with the great passion and enthousiam of the people that have made us the unique company we are.

Back in the days the brothers Jan en Piet Schoemaker started trading in seeds, cereals, and leguminous vegetables at the Amsterdam exchange. They soon discovered a niche market for unconventional cocoa raw materials and developed specialized production techniques for extraction of fat. Schoemaker used mechanical and solvent extraction techniques for the extraction of cocoa fat since 1925 and began refining cocoa fat for the production of refined and deodorized cocoa butter in 1958. Since the early days, we have been widely known as a leading producer of cocoa ingredients and we take pride in our worldwide reputation for our specialised production techniques.

In the sixties and seventies, the heydays of cocoa production, Schoemaker owned a production plant in Brazil, a buying firm in Ghana and a production plant in Nigeria. Between 1984 and 1989 the company witnessed a takeover, a merger and a management buy-out, resulting in a more effective operation. This ensured Schoemakers’ ability to weather the rather disappointing years in the worldwide cocoa trade in the early nineties and re-establish itself as a strong partner in the cocoa industry.

It changed its commercial name into JS COCOA after the most recent MBO in 2017, emphasizing its increased international focus for growth. JS COCOA moved into dark-alkalization of cocoa powder, broadened its range of cocoa butters and put much more focus and emphasis on the social responsibility, both in origin countries as well as in later parts of the cocoa supply chain, underlining its role as circular conscience within the cocoa and chocolate industry.