Japan’s largest retailer, Aeon, has debuted a private-label biscuit SKU featuring ChoViva, a cocoa-free chocolate alternative by Planet A Foods.
After establishing a foothold in Europe and the US with some of the world’s largest chocolatiers and supermarkets, Planet A Foods has brought its cocoa-free chocolate to Asia.
The German startup has teamed up with Japanese retail giant Aeon, which has released a new biscuit using the former’s sunflower-seed-based ChoViva alternative.
Called ‘Chococa?’ (which translates to ‘Is It Chocolate?’), the new product is being rolled out under Aeon’s Topvalu own-label brand. It’s available at around 2,2000 Aeon, Aeon Style, and MaxValu stores for a limited period.
Planet A Foods goes truly global with ChoViva
The product consists of a wheat and oat biscuit coated with Planet A Foods’s milk chocolate alternative. It contains 7.1g of sugar and 3g of fat, and each 143g pack contains 12 pieces and costs 398 yen ($2.75).
To make its beanless chocolate, Planet A Foods puts a base of sunflower seeds through a proprietary fermentation process. This is then roasted to bring out a similar aroma, flavour and texture to cocoa, and mixed with sugar and plant-based fats to create a mass similar to cocoa.
ChoViva can be used as a 1:1 replacement for conventional chocolate or in hybrid formulations. Since entering the market in 2024, it has featured in over 60 products in over 42,000 points of sale in seven countries: Germany, the UK, the US, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.
The startup has partnered with the likes of Lindt, Piasten, Lambertz, Griesson-de Beukelaer, Peter Kölln, Lufthansa, Deutsche Bahn, and Seidl Confiserie, and worked with retailers such as Kaufland, Rewe (and its subsidiary Penny), Aldi, and Lidl for private-label innovations.
Planet A Foods itself is working to expand its annual production capacity from 2,000 tonnes to over 15,000 tonnes, an effort supported by a $30M Series B round in December. “Our mission remains unchanged: to provide sustainable food ingredients that are decoupled from price-volatile and limited resources such as cocoa,” co-founder and CEO Maximilian Marquart said at the time.
Japan bets on alternative cocoa
Speaking of which, chocolate alternatives are hot property thanks to the climate crisis. Scientists have warned that cocoa trees are threatened, and a third of them could die out by 2050, which could lead to a global chocolate shortage.
Global cocoa stocks have slumped to their lowest in a decade. Ivory Coast and Ghana – the two largest producers – are the biggest victims of extreme weather, crop diseases, and reduced plantations in favour of illegal gold mining.
All this has already caused major price hikes. In 2024, cocoa futures broke all-time records, and the cost will continue to remain high this year. That has hurt the sales of industry giants like Hershey’s, whose profit forecast for 2025 is below analysts’ expectations. Some are now turning to alternatives – Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest cocoa manufacturer, is using precision-fermented sunflower seeds for some of its offerings in Europe.
These factors are also what drove Aeon to partner with Planet A Foods. It cited tight supplies and high prices to advocate for enhanced production tech and alternative raw materials. It’s not the first to innovate with cocoa-free chocolate in Japan.
Since last year, food producer Ahjikan has been selling Govoce, which uses a sweet ingredient called MelBurd, replacing cocoa with burdock seeds. And in March, Fuji Oil introduced Anoza M, a B2B alternative made from uses pea protein, carob, and vegetable fats.
Meanwhile, Japanese chocolate major Meiji is co-developing cell-based chocolate products as part of a decade-long partnership with California Cultured, which employs plant cell culture to make bioidentical cocoa.
Others innovating in the alternative chocolate space include Compound Foods, Voyage Foods, Prefer, Foreverland, Nukoko, Endless Food Co, and Food Brewer.
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