Amsterdam is the largest cocoa port in the world. A day’s drive to the south, Delica runs the Swiss factories behind the Migros company’s chocolate, coffee and snacks. Steinweg receives, stores and handles the cocoa beans at the Amsterdam terminal before they travel on. Every one of those shipments passes two desks. Nicole Rey, Raw Materials Buyer at Delica, sits at one. Jaïr de Paauw, Business Development Manager at Steinweg, sits at the other.

In 2018, Delica’s beans first arrived at Steinweg’s terminal in Amsterdam. In that same year Nicole moved into cocoa purchasing. ‘I create all the contracts and purchase orders, and I coordinate everything between the suppliers, Steinweg and our production facilities,’ she explains. Most of that work happens from Switzerland, but in her first year she visited Amsterdam. ‘It was the first time I saw a warehouse like this: how the beans are stored, how samples are taken, how they are pre-cleaned before travelling on.’ Jaïr joined Steinweg in January 2025. He also made the trip to Switzerland almost immediately, to introduce himself. ‘That’s where you start building the relationship,’ he explains. ‘After that, every mail has a face and a voice behind it. In our high-pressure, fast-pace sector, some emails need to be really direct: just the vital information and nothing else.’

‘A bit like Y2K’

One challenge is the upcoming European Deforestation Regulation, which will require companies to prove their cocoa is not linked to deforestation. ‘The EUDR is a bit like Y2K,’ Jaïr explains. ‘You prepare as much as you possibly can, yet once the regulations come into force, we will come across things no one has thought of yet. That’s when it helps to have a strong relationship where it’s okay to not know everything.’ Nicole agrees. ‘For us, this is also new, so we are happy to have a partner who knows this topic. Whatever comes up, we know we can solve it together.’

Beyond chocolate

In October, the date that had been circled for months finally arrived. Delica’s management had selected Amsterdam as a destination for a study- and partnership visit, and out of everyone the group works with, Steinweg was chosen as the partner to visit. It was a visit with special meaning: the departing director wanted to see the terminal as part of his farewell, a fitting moment to pass the torch to his successor. The full management team came along, joined by their partners, for a presentation about Steinweg, a tour of the terminal and lunch together, before heading into the city for a canal cruise.

For Jaïr, being chosen meant a lot. ‘It says something about how Delica looks at Steinweg. It makes you proud and humble at the same time.’ The collaboration may not stay confined to cocoa. ‘Maybe in five or ten years we do a lot more than just cocoa,’ says Jaïr. However the business grows, Nicole hopes one thing stays where it is. ‘We hope we keep working with the same Steinweg team for a long time to come.’