Kumasi Drinks: squeezing cacao fruit to reduce waste and generate extra income for farmers

Lioness Pitch Profile / Start-Up Night Africa, The Hague, 2025

Linda Klunder is the CEO of Kumasi Drinks BV, which produces 100% natural soft drinks made from the sap of the cocoa pod, normally discarded during cocoa production. The drink has a tropical flavour resembling a mix of lychee, mango, and white peach, and is available either sparkling or still.

“We squeeze cacao fruit, not the farmers.”… “By processing and selling as much cocoa fruit juice as possible, we're making an ever-growing difference. We now operate in Ecuador, Ghana and the Ivory Coast.” — Linda Klunder

Contact

Linda Klunder, CEO, Kumasi Drinks BV (Netherlands)

Website: www.kumasi-drinks.nl

Pitch Summary

Linda Klunder, CEO of Kumasi Drinks BV in the Netherlands, introduces cocoa as a fruit and highlights that chocolate uses only the seed, wasting about 75% of the fruit’s potential value. She argues this waste is economically and socially harmful, especially for farmers at the start of the supply chain. Her company, Kumasi, addresses this by paying farmers for the pulp and other parts of the cacao fruit and producing consumer products from the fruit. Inspired by a documentary on Nestlé’s cocoa supply chain and by tasting cocoa pulp for the first time, she launched Kumasi Drinks in the Netherlands. Linda has spent two years in the Ivory Coast building a factory to upcycle the entire fruit, starting with juice and expanding to husk and other commodities. The company rebranded to Kumasi Commodity Innovations, raised €2.5 million, and counts Tony’s Chocolonely as an investor and prospective partner. They seek ambassadors to help launch in West Africa—starting in Côte d’Ivoire this year—and to expand across Africa, inviting collaboration on distribution and additional waste-stream products.

Pitch Video