Cocoa News Flow

Staying Ahead in a Fast-Moving Industry

Every day, critical news breaks that could impact Mondelez—cocoa price fluctuations, competitor product launches, supply chain disruptions, consumer trends. Your teams need this information, but who has time to monitor dozens of news sources?

The Challenge

Your leadership teams face information overload:

  • Cocoa market prices change daily, affecting purchasing decisions
  • Competitors launch new products weekly
  • Consumer preferences shift constantly
  • Supply chain issues emerge without warning
  • Each department needs different insights from the same news

The Cocoa News Intelligence Flow

This Flow acts as your organization's intelligence analyst—continuously monitoring the industry and delivering personalized briefings to each department.

  1. Searches the web for news from the past week about:

    • Mondelez announcements and performance
    • Competitor activities (Mars, Hershey's, Nestlé, Ferrero)
    • CPG industry trends and innovations
    • Cocoa market conditions and pricing

  2. Analyzes each article to understand which teams would care:

    • R&D needs product innovation and ingredient trends
    • Purchasing needs commodity pricing and supply forecasts
    • Sales needs market opportunities and consumer insights
    • Competitive Intelligence needs competitor strategies

  3. Creates customized briefings for each department explaining:

    • What happened and why it matters
    • How it impacts your business
    • Recommended actions to consider

  4. Delivers via email to the right department managers automatically

Example: Monday Morning Briefing

To R&D Director:

Premiumization is driving double-digit growth in confectionery, creating significant implications for manufacturers in terms of product development and positioning strategies. [Confectionery News]

Barry Callebaut, a Swiss chocolate company known for their Van Houten line, officially opened their third manufacturing facility in Canada on November 14, 2025, demonstrating continued industry investment in production capacity. [CP24]

Recommendation: Accelerate premium product development to capture double-digit growth opportunities and explore cross-brand collaboration opportunities for seasonal innovation.

To Chief Procurement Officer:

Cocoa prices extended their week-long sell-off on November 14, 2025, posting 1.75-year lows on the nearest-futures chart. The benchmark price for cocoa came down to about $7,510 CAD per tonne as of Friday, about half the price it was at its peak this past winter. [Barchart] [CBC]

NY cocoa prices are retreating on expectations that the US may cut tariffs on crops not grown in the US, potentially reducing import costs for chocolate manufacturers. [Barchart]

Cocoa prices retreated on signs of a bumper cocoa crop in West Africa, with prices falling 4.16% on November 11, 2025, due to improved weather conditions and disease management in the region where half of the world's cocoa is grown. [Barchart]

Recommendation: Lock in favorable pricing immediately given 50% decline from peak levels, while monitoring potential tariff relief that could further reduce costs.

To VP of Sales:

Mondelēz International beat out Mars, Ferrero, Nestlé, and Hershey with $36 billion in sales in 2025, making it the best-selling candy company. [Mashed]

Hershey is creating new holiday candy to boost slowing sales, with CEO Kirk Tanner revealing in October 2025 that Halloween candy sales had gotten off to a slower start than usual. This indicates competitive vulnerability during key seasonal periods. [The Street]

The CPG industry is dominated by global giants like Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Unilever, and Coca-Cola, which lead through innovation, sustainability, and robust digital strategies. [Orders in Seconds]

Recommendation: Capitalize on Hershey's holiday sales weakness by increasing promotional activity and shelf presence during key seasonal periods.

To Competitive Intelligence Lead:

Nestlé, Mondelēz International, and Hershey are all dealing with the pressure of high commodity prices in November 2025. Even the biggest players are finding it challenging to ride out the commodity price storm. [Confectionery News]

Major CPGs like Nestlé and Unilever are cutting thousands of jobs in October 2025, with mergers and divestitures aimed at streamlining operations. Financial pressure is pushing companies to sell non-core assets. [Confectionery News]

Krispy Kreme and Quality Street have teamed up to turn two iconic chocolates into irresistible festive doughnuts, available across the UK and Ireland until November 30, 2025. The lineup features The Purple One and Caramel Swirl doughnuts alongside winter beverages. [Confectionery News]

Recommendation: Monitor competitor cost-cutting initiatives and potential asset divestitures for acquisition opportunities, while preparing for continued industry consolidation pressures.

Building Your Flow

Here's how to create this Flow in Quick Suite:

Step 1: Create new Flow

  1. Click on Flows inline-mediumon the left side of your screen

  2. Click Create Flow inline-medium

  3. Copy this prompt into Quick Suite Flow Builder and click Generate

    Create a Flow called "Cocoa News Intelligence Flow"

1. Search the web for news from the past week about Mondelez, competitors (Mars, Hershey's, Nestlé, Ferrero), CPG industry trends, and cocoa commodity markets. Make note of the news source, date of information, and the URL where the information was found.

2. Categorize articles by department relevance:
- Research and Development (product innovation, ingredients, formulations)
- Purchasing (commodity prices, supply chain, procurement)
- Sales (market opportunities, consumer trends, retail)
- Competitive Intelligence (competitor strategies, M&A, positioning)

3. Create customized executive briefing emails for each department explaining what happened, why it matters, and suggested actions. Include the name of name of the source of the information and a link to the source article. 

4. Use Workshop APIs to find the manager/director of each department by querying employees

5. Send the appropriate briefing email to each department manager

6. Generate a summary report of articles analyzed and emails sent

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Step 2: Flow Editor

  1. Quick Suite will create a flow with multiple steps, then will take you to the Editor where you can make changes

    alt text

  2. If you see this wizard, read through it, clicking Next when done

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  3. Review the flow steps that were automatically created. Your steps might not be exactly the same as the screenshots.

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    Click through the different steps and look at the options and settings on the left side of the screen. Different types of steps will have different options available.

Step 3: View Sample Flow Output

  1. To save time, instead of running your own flow, let's just look at the results of a flow run previously

  2. The flows are executing and searching the internet for industry news alt text

  3. Competitive Intelligence Briefing alt text

  4. Industry Trends alt text

Step 4: Workshop Completed!

Congratulations! You've completed the Mondelez Agentic AI with Amazon Quick Suite workshop! The workshop account will be active for 72 hours. You can come back in later with the same email address if you would like to finish up something you didn't get a chance to finish during the hands-on workshop.