Ghana’s export of chocolate and cocoa related products used in other food preparations stood at $13.4 million at the end of 2019, showing an increase of 16.16 per cent from 2018.

In comparison, the country exported $5.3 million and $11.5 million in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

These figures were contained in a report by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), which indicated that over 87 per cent of the total exports of chocolate by Ghana were exported to its neighbouring country, Nigeria.

With this, Nigeria maintained its dominance as a key destination for Ghana’s chocolate since 2018, overtaking France, who held the position up until 2017.

The Authority added that Nigeria imported close to $11.8 million of chocolate in 2019, with Ghana having a market share of 71.7 per cent in the total imports of Nigeria.

The report further stated that, “Other competitors in the Nigeria market were China with 10 per cent, Netherland, nine per cent, and the United States of America (USA) with 3.1 per cent,” correspondingly.

According to the Authority the total exports of China reached over $331 million in 2019 with the largest export destination for China being Hong Kong, which accounted for 22.1 per cent.

Adding that other import partners of China were Republic of Korea, which had 11.8 per cent, Australia, 8.5per cent and the Philippines which recorded 7.8 per cent of China’s export.

Also, exports of chocolates from China to Australia reached an average annual growth rate of 43 per cent from 2015 – 2019, the report had it.

Similarly, the Netherlands export was $2.04 billion in 2019 and the largest export destinations for the Netherlands included Germany, 21.5 per cent, France, 12 per cent, United Kingdom (UK), 10.1 per cent and Belgium, 10 per cent, in that order.

The USA’s chocolate export also reached $1.66 billion in 2019, with its destination markets being Canada which had 37.7 per cent, Mexico, 13.2 per cent, and the Republic of Korea with 4.3 per cent.

Besides the largest destination market of Canada, Vietnam, import growth attained 55 per cent, the highest for the USA market over a four-year period (from 2015 to 2019).

Meanwhile, the global demand of chocolate and related products stood at $28.62 billion in 2019, indicating huge opportunities in the confectionery sector.

The top five global exporters of chocolate in 2019 were Germany with $4.9 billion, Belgium, $3.1 billion, Italy, $2.1billion, Netherlands, $2 billion and Poland with $1.8 billion.