Juan Ricardo Luciano, president and chief operating officer of ADM said in yesterday’s earnings call: “We expect to have signed agreement by the end of the third quarter to sell our global chocolate business.”
The company has chocolate manufacturing operations in Hazleton, Pa.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Georgetown, Ontario; Liverpool, U.K.; Manage, Belgium; and Mannheim, Germany.
Earlier this year ADM backed out of plans to sell its joint chocolate and cocoa business ADM Cocoa. In April, it said that it intended retain the majority of its cocoa processing operations, but would sell its chocolate business.
ADM Cocoa has an annually grinding capacity of around 600,000 metric tons (MT) and accounts for 15% of global cocoa processing – third behind Barry Callebaut and Cargill.