During the 18th century, Dutch merchants controlled virtually the entire trade in cocoa beans. Amsterdam developed into the most important cocoa port in the world and thereby stimulated a local cocoa industry.
Dutch initiatives established the basis of modern cocoa processing, this included the invention of the cocoa press to remove the fat from cocoa mass and the development of the Dutch Process of alkalization (by C.J. van Houten). These advances became the basis of Dutch supremacy in cocoa processing which remains true today.