Africa's Plan to Bring Chocolate Profits Home

The $100 billion chocolate industry largely begins in Ivory Coast and Ghana, but farmers there get very little of the revenue. Most goes to European countries where companies turn raw beans into pure profit. African governments and entrepreneurs are now looking to break the colonial cycle.

#Africa #Trade #BloombergQuicktake

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[aryakomal]

60 to 70 percent of world's all chocolate comes from just two countries and workers there are living there under poverty!!! Doesn't adds up.

[maksymvinyarskyy]

"When you get to farmer households, you'll find that some may never even have tasted chocolate" This is so profound. They harvest it but don't have the privilege to even taste it.

[daniswara]

Ghana and Ivory coast should take Indonesia as example. Indonesia started banning exporting raw materials of any products. Now they get much more out of their raw resources. No more exporting raw resource or you would be exploited by western countries.

[usernamesolomon]

I saw a video of cocoa farmer tasting chocolate for the first time, their reaction was priceless, that video made me smile and feel sad at the same time.

[seasong]

Great to see the governments actually do something to solve the problem for once

[NgolaNalane]

Now we have to bring our gold and diamond profits home. Africa will rise

[godlistenmnkeni]

Its about time Africans started enjoying the benefits of their resources and hard work. We have to industrialize and export processed goods and manufactured goods.

Its going to take time for sure. And it will need great political willpower and great economic visionaries in power to make it happen. I am tired of seeing documentaries repeating the same story over and over again just in a different light... Something clearly has to change.

[ChristianYoga]

My country, Indonesia, is the third biggest cocoa producer in the world, yet a lot of local high level bakery choose to import chocolate from Europe instead.
It's saddening that we can't even produce high level chocolate on par with Europe...

[linzierogers]

There are several Ghanaian chocolate factory owners. Why didn't they show more of these companies?

[abdourahmanealkhalifa]

Former European colonial powers in Africa have destroyed the food self-sufficiency by forcing their colonies to produce certain crops and abandon essential ones. Apparently, exporting crops or raw materials will never get any country out of poverty. Thus, as long as there is no manufacturing and processing of African crops and raw materials, these countries will continue to suffer from poverty. The first step towards solving this is by building the necessary infrastructures, such as power plants, water networks, sewage systems, ports and roads. So far, China has been the only country that is working in helping African nations to build their infrastructures.

[adilhakam]

I only eat chocolate made in Africa, I banned all European chocolate last year, everyone of us makes a small difference

[EasyTradeAfrica]

Interesting, thanks for sharing …

Côte-d’Ivoire, cocoa processing from its raw form into other products has increased in recent years, reaching 33% percent. Côte-d’Ivoire government is projecting to have about 70 percent of its cocoa processed into semi-finished and finished products. According to the Ivory Coast’s cocoa regulator, the domestic processing of cocoa beans surpasses 1.2 million tonnes within two years.

[angeln]

Yes! I love seeing this! Restoring power to enhance our own economy over others who have taken advantage of pricing. Bless up Africa 🙏🏼

[benmcreynolds]

It's the same issue with gem stones and mineral mining.. the people who provide it reap NONE OF THE REWARDS for their products...

[godSPARDA]

ATROCIOUS!!!! This is just like Colonialism!! It has to change! These farmers deserve SO. MUCH. MORE.

[nomisage]

So when Europeans have exploited Africans since slavery and colonial times for African labor and raw material, they don't get criticize. But when it's China, it's colonialism 2.0

Europeans should have helped Africans with building their infrastructure to improve their lives but after all these years, they have not. This is why African governments turn to the countries that are willing to help and build that infrastructure because the Europeans failed to take that risk

[rodongo]

The sad story is even with a new approach, as long as it's price is still set based on foreign currencies very little benefit will reach an ordinary farmer. Save your face, set the price based on your currencies. This would increase the demand for your currency too and hence a good income in the international market.

[matiyak]

Chocolate, vanilla, coffee, bananas tobacco, sugar cane, palm oil, avacados... all of it shares similar story some more than others.

[thechosenone]

The two countries should team up with other cocoa exporters and create and OPEC like cartel to demand a better price for their products.

[Yvaelle]

One big unanswered question was this: Cocoa is a commodity sold by the ton, the current value is between $800 and $1000/ton, but the farmers seem to only be getting paid $200-400/ton. Where is the rest going? As much as 75% of the commodity value is being lost between the farm and the global market. US truck shipping costs are around $100/ton for 1000km, and rail is less than half that, and ocean shipping costs are trivial. So transport is surely counting for a fraction here but not even half of the missing amount.