Farmers Day: Ghana, Ivory Coast secures $113 million from global commodities trader, Cargill to expand cocoa processing facilities

December 6, 2019 2:23 PM

Ghana and Ivory Coast, the largest cocoa manufacturing countries have secured more than $113 million to expand the cocoa processing facilities in both countries.

Farmers Day: Ghana, Ivory Coast secures $113 million from global commodities trader, Cargill to expand cocoa processing facilities

The investment, which came from one of the world’s largest agricultural traders, Cargill is aimed at creating 85 direct and hundreds of indirect jobs.

Cargill in a statement signed by the Managing Director Cargill West-Africa, Lionel Soulard noted that the company was also investing $12.3 million to expand sustainability and supply chain tracing programmes in the West African nations.

“We aim to shift a greater share of our global grinding activities to the countries of origin, so we can support the establishment of a broader, local agri-food industry,” the statement said.

Ivory Coast and Ghana produce some two-thirds of the world’s cocoa, but their industry is blighted by poverty, child labour and deforestation. Decades of industry efforts to source sustainably have done little to change this reality.

Going up the value chain by expanding cocoa processing is a major objective for the Ivory Coast and Ghana governments, as selling processed or semi-processed cocoa products are more lucrative than exporting the raw material.