Abstract:Cocoa butter，the key ingredient in chocolate，is silky and fragrantly delicious，making it highly favored by consumers. However，cocoa butter is in short supply globally and priced high due to factors such as cultivation，production，pests，and diseases，which severely limit its application in the chocolate confectionery field. At present，the statistics on cocoa distribution，imports and exports are relatively scattered，hindering subsequent assessment. This paper focused on cocoa′s distribution，production，prices，imports and exports in the 2017-2022 and analyzed trends from charts to clearly and directly show cocoa′s market distribution. Such analysis benefited the development of the cocoa butter industry. The main sources of cocoa butter equivalents and cocoa butter substitutes are mango kernel oil，shea butter oil，mangosteen seed oil，Chinese buckeye seed oil，coconut oil and palm kernel oil.Based on the research on their composition，the application of cocoa butter alternatives both in China and abroad is further elaborated and summarized.The actual roles of cocoa butter and its alternatives in the chocolate industry will be clarified to provide a practical reference for the research on cocoa butter alternatives.