<aside> 📌 Last updated June 24th, 2024.
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The traditional cocoa chain is long and complex, involving a large number of intermediaries. 90% of cocoa production is produced by small cocoa farmers, who individually own between 2 and 4 hectares of cocoa.
The majority of these small producers are located in rural areas. Buyers" visit their farms to buy cocoa from them. These buyers generally work for local intermediaries.
These intermediaries then sell the cocoa to exporters who are generally based in larger towns close to the country's ports or capital cities. There may be several layers of intermediaries, depending on the size of the territory.
These exporters then negotiate with traders, and offer cocoa in large quantities, at a price defined by the stock market, except in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire where the price of cocoa is regulated by the state.
The wholesalers then sell the cocoa to suppliers and/or chocolate manufacturers, who transform the cocoa into chocolate and sell it to the last intermediary in the chain: the chocolate brands.
World cocoa production has grown steadily over the last 50 years. In the early 2000s, cocoa-producing countries as a whole were already producing 2.8 million tonnes of cocoa.
Over the following 10 years, cocoa production rose by 40%, reaching 4 million tonnes in 2010. By 2021, annual world cocoa production will be close to 5 million tonnes**.
Even today, West Africa retains its supremacy: Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana alone account for 60% of world cocoa production. Just behind them in the ranking are Ecuador, Cameroon, Nigeria, Brazil, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Cocoa is mainly produced in tropical and subtropical countries.
The main "simple ingredients" derived from cocoa are :