Kumasi Drinks and SustnReal receive grants from NFP’s 2025 true pricing seed fund

Each grantee will apply true pricing transparency with an interesting innovative comparative focus. While Kumasi Drinks will analyse how the valorisation of a by-product will influence the true cost of the main product, SustnReal will compare the externalities of three production methods: conventional, organic and regenerative.

Kumasi Drinks is a Dutch start-up that uses cocoa juice, usually a waste product associated with the cocoa value chain, to produce soft drinks. This complements cocoa farmers’ income and reduces waste. With funds from the NFP true pricing seed fund, Kumasi aims to show how valorizing cocoa side-streams (such as juice and pulp) can significantly reduce true price externalities and enable fairer value distribution across the chain in Côte d’Ivoire.

Kumasi will quantify the social and environmental externalities of cocoa juice production and their mitigation potential; demonstrate measurable reductions in  emissions and social risk exposure relevant to regulatory due diligence (e.g., child labor, underpayment); pilot a true pricing-based payment model that rewards farmers for their full harvest, including side-streams; and build traceability and reporting systems to supply downstream partners with transparent impact metrics - delivering insights in the impact that the private sectors are making.

SustnReal provides consulting, mentoring, and training services with a goal to make businesses more sustainable. With the funds from the NFP true pricing seed fund, SustnReal will analyse three cocoa production methods (organic, conventional, and agroforestry) in representative regions in Brazil, in partnership with Dengo Chocolates. A comparative analysis of external costs across different production systems and recommendations to reduce these costs will be made.

Next to this analysis, local capacity will be built to carry out its own true price analyses, with the methodology adapted to the context of cocoa in regions in Brazil.

We are happy to make these ambitious and impactful projects possible!