Barry Callebaut sees slight uptick in sales volume

Barry Callebaut saw its sales volume grow by 5.7 per cent in Q3, but overall sales volume for the first nine months of fiscal 2025/26 was down by 2.8 per cent to 1,557,239 tonnes.

Barry Callebaut attributes the growth in Q3 to elevated demand in global cocoa, continued momentum in AMEA and the restoration of service levels in North America.

Its global chocolate business experienced a 2.3 per cent volume decrease. Volume development for food manufacturers (-2.3 per cent) was impacted by “challenging market demand dynamics and supply disruption in North America in the first half, with a return to growth in the third quarter”. Volumes in gourmet also decreased for the nine months (-2.8 per cent) due to declining cocoa bean prices.

“We are encouraged by the return to positive volume growth in the third quarter, which partly reflects early signs of stabilizing fundamentals and service levels in North America. At the same time, the chocolate market remains challenging and our improvement will be gradual. During the quarter, we took targeted steps to evolve our organizational set up and advance our Focus for Growth journey by strengthening regional empowerment while preserving global functional alignment. We are unwavering in our focus on further reinforcing our fundamentals to gain market share and drive sustained profitable growth,” said Hein Schumacher, CEO of the Barry Callebaut Group.

In June, Barry Callebaut launched an action plan to strengthen the company’s fundamentals. It has made some operational changes. Effective September 1, 2026, the MENA (Middle East & North Africa) and SEWA (South East & West Africa) country clusters will transition from AMEA to CEE, reflecting geographic proximity, customer preferences and supply chain interdependencies. As a result, from fiscal year 2026/27, CEE will become CEMEA (Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa), while AMEA will become Asia Pacific (APAC).

For fiscal year 2025/26, the company now expects a volume decrease of around 1 per cent.