Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon Unite to End Raw Cocoa Exports To Europe
Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon are set to form a new cocoa alliance aimed at ending decades of exporting raw cocoa beans to Europe.
The four countries, which together produce about 70% of the world’s cocoa, are set to sign the Abuja Declaration at the Cocoa Value Addition Summit 2026 in Nigeria, creating a Cocoa Value Addition Alliance.
The alliance will enable Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire to start locally processing their cocoa beans and turn them into finished products like chocolate, cocoa powder and cocoa butter..
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Nigeria’s Minister of State for Industry, Senator John Owan Enoh, said Africa is moving away from an old colonial and imperial system where Africa exports raw cocoa and imports finished chocolate products at higher costs.
“For a hundred years, Africa has sent its cocoa to the world in sacks and received it back in wrappers,” Enoh said.
Despite producing more than 70% of the world’s cocoa, Africa’s five largest cocoa-producing countries; Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Uganda, collectively earn only about $10 to $15 billion a year from cocoa exports.
On the other hand, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands export around $28 billion worth of finished cocoa products annually using cocoa largely imported from Africa, and sadly, none of these countries grow or produce cocoa beans.
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