Abstract

Cocoa is a key tropical crop with profound environmental, social, and economic implications throughout its value chain. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been widely employed to assess these impacts; however, most applications remain fragmented and focus primarily on environmental dimensions. This review addresses the issue related to which phases of the cocoa life cycle generate the most significant environmental impacts and how do LCA methodological choices influence the integration of socioeconomic dimensions. A systematic literature review of 33 LCA studies published between 2008 and 2025 was conducted. The dominant categories, impact indicators, and boundary conditions were identified by applying the PRISMA methodology and cluster analysis. Results show that cultivation involves high water consumption, especially in conventional monocultures, while processing is the most energy-intensive due to machinery and transport demands. Most studies adopt cradle-to-gate system boundaries and rely heavily on secondary databases, limiting accuracy and comparability across cases. Overall, LCA helps identify environmental hotspots and guide decisions but is limited by data gaps and poor integration of social and economic factors. Advancing toward comprehensive assessments requires region-specific datasets, sensitivity analyses, and hybrid frameworks, including UNEP/SETAC Social LCA guidelines, to fully integrate environmental, social, and economic dimensions of cocoa value chains.