Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s leading cocoa producers, are intensifying efforts to process more of their cocoa domestically in a bid to claim a greater share of the global chocolate market.
At the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group Annual Meetings, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama highlighted the imbalance in the cocoa industry: although the two countries supply the bulk of the world’s cocoa, they receive only a small portion of the profits from chocolate sales.
Currently, Ghana processes about 40% of its cocoa locally, while Côte d’Ivoire has reached 50%. Both nations are working to boost these figures but face significant challenges in exporting finished chocolate products to major markets like Europe and the United States.
“The system is rigged against us,” Mahama said, pointing to non-tariff barriers that hinder African-made chocolate from entering global markets. He noted that European companies, even those operating in Africa, face far fewer restrictions.
The push to expand local cocoa processing is part of a wider strategy to reduce dependence on raw exports and generate more jobs and economic value at home.
Despite dominating global cocoa production, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire have historically seen the bulk of value-added processing—like turning cocoa into chocolate—take place overseas.
Mahama stated that Ghana aims to match Côte d’Ivoire’s 50% processing rate within five years, with ambitions to go even further.
