The?Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC) Ghana has secured major offtake agreements with leading confectionery and beverage companies in the Middle East for the country’s premium value-added cocoa beans.

The deal will see the CMC supplying significant volumes of Ghanaian cocoa to buyers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, opening a new growth market for the country’s cocoa.

Officials say the multi-year move seeks to bring into reality the government’s intention to process up to 50 per cent of cocoa beans locally for the export market.

The move will create jobs and value for the domestic industry and also take a substantial part of the hundreds of billions of dollars that the global cocoa industry commands.

Semi-finished cocoa products

For years, the country depended on buyers in Europe until the latest development that pushed for value addition and new strategies.

The offtake commitments include semi-finished cocoa products, including cocoa liquor, butter, cake and powder, which is great news for domestic companies to work hard to meet the demands.

The agreement, secured through engagements led by the Managing Director of CPC, Dr Wisdom Dogbey, will help guarantee demand for products from the country’s existing processing facilities.

Dubai Multi Commodities Centre

The current offtake agreement, which will in a few days be extended to other parts of the global market, would greatly support the government’s agenda to process at least 50 per cent of the country’s cocoa domestically.

While in Dubai, Dr Dogbey led discussions with the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), exploring opportunities to connect Ghanaian cocoa products with processors and traders across the Middle East and Asia.

Riyadh, the sprawling, hyper-modern capital and financial hub of Saudi Arabia – a home to more than 6.5 million people serves as the dynamic focal point of the nation's ambitious Saudi Vision 2030, which aligns with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s growing confectionery and food-processing industry and its economic diversification agenda.

Saudi Arabia move  

Dr Dogbey said these engagements marked an important step in CMC’s drive to diversify Ghana’s cocoa markets, increase the utilisation of domestic processing capacity and ensure that value addition was supported by real and sustainable global demand.

The move, he said, was from Ghana to the world, as CMC continued to build markets for the future of cocoa.

After the turbulence in the cocoa sector, Ghana took a bold decision that, beginning from the 2026/27 crop season, the country would ensure that at least 50 per cent of all harvested cocoa beans were processed domestically.

This major policy shift aims to create more local jobs and keep valuable profits within the country instead of exporting raw materials.

Purpose

Historically, the country is the world's second-largest cocoa producer, exporting more than 70 per cent of its cocoa beans to Europe and other countries as raw agricultural produce.

With the policy shift, the country could process the beans into "semi-finished" goods like cocoa powder, cocoa butter, and cocoa liquor to earn more and enjoy the value that comes with it.

This adds value to the product before it gets shipped internationally to ensure there are buyers for the large amount of newly processed cocoa.

Wheat and few pennies theory

The government is also reviving state-linked factories such as the Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) and partnering private businesses to handle the increased grinding and manufacturing.

Industry players and farmers have welcomed the move by the CMC, saying, “If you sell raw wheat, you make a few pennies.

But if you turn that wheat into flour, and then into baked bread, you sell it for a much higher price.”

Therefore, processing cocoa locally means Ghana gets to earn more money from the global market and create more factories, more jobs for its teeming job seekers.