News · 29 October 2026
Barry Callebaut full-year results 2026: what to watch on cocoa
The chocolate maker reports on 4 November. Here is what it said in July, what the cocoa market looks like now, and the three lines worth reading.
Barry Callebaut reports its full-year results for the 2025/26 financial year on 4 November 2026.[5] If you want to follow what the world's cocoa and chocolate maker says about cocoa, read for three things: volume, price and the outlook. Here's where things stood in July, and what to look for next week.
What did Barry Callebaut say about cocoa in July?
In the nine-month update, group volume was down 2.8%. The third quarter grew 5.7%, the first quarterly rise in two years.[3] Cocoa volumes fell 4.9% over nine months, then jumped 18% in the third quarter, helped by lower cocoa prices earlier in the year.[3] Chocolate volumes slipped 2.3% over nine months and rose 3.2% in the quarter.[3]
Sales fell 9.5% in local currencies to 9.6 billion francs.[3] The reason is simple: cheaper cocoa beans mean lower prices for customers buying cocoa-related products.[4] For the full year, the company expected volume to fall about 1%.[3] Its chief executive said the company was "encouraged by the return to positive volume growth in the third quarter" but that improvement would be gradual.[3]
Where is the cocoa market now?
On 27 October 2026 the ICCO daily price stood at US$5,705.13 a tonne (€5,121.21).[1] That's the number to hold in your head when you read the company's figures.
The latest ICCO bulletin covers the season before. World grindings fell 3.3% to 4.649 million tonnes in 2024/25, and ICCO put the global surplus at 37,000 tonnes.[2] End-of-season stocks rose almost 3% to 1.309 million tonnes.[2] For 2025/26, ICCO has held back production and grindings data for now, so you can't see this year's balance yet.[2] The same bulletin flags worry about weather risks tied to an expected El Niño later in 2026.[2]
What should you read for on 4 November?
| Line in the results | Why it matters to a kitchen |
|---|---|
| Fourth-quarter volume against the guided fall of about 1% for the year[3] | Shows whether buyers are coming back as prices ease |
| Cocoa volume after +18% in the third quarter[3] | Shows whether the rebound held or was a one-quarter catch-up |
| Gourmet and Specialties, part of the company's Focus for Growth plan[4] | This is the part of the business closest to professional pastry and chocolate work |
Remember that these figures are the company's own view, published on its own timetable. A results release tells you about a chocolate maker's year. It won't tell you the price on your next invoice.
What does this mean for you as a future pastry chef or chocolatier?
Cocoa swings a chocolate kitchen's costs more than anything else. Results like these are one of the few places where a large buyer explains what it sees. Reading them is a skill in itself: you learn to separate the headline from the line that changes how you buy.
That's why we teach the cost side alongside the bench work. In the Higher Diploma, Semester 3 pairs Advanced Chocolate Pralines with Small Business Management and Food and Beverage Cost Management. Then you spend Semester 4 on a six-month paid internship.[3] That last point comes from the school's own programme facts, not from the results: Year 2 is Semester 3 in class and Semester 4 as a paid internship, and those modules sit in Semester 3.
If you don't have a year to give, the 10-week Certificate in Pastry, Chocolate and Bakery has 180 kitchen hours and includes Chocolate Work Foundations. It has no internship.
Next step
Come back to this page after 4 November, when we'll update it from the company's own release. Meanwhile, see how the Higher Diploma teaches chocolate and costing, or run the two-minute fit check to find the programme that suits you. Our guide to Swiss chocolate covers the background.