Produced in the south – consumed in the north
Globally, cocoa farmers produce around five million tonnes of cocoa beans per year. The biggest cocoa-growing countries are Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, accounting for nearly 60% of the worldwide cocoa production. More than a third of the cocoa beans are processed in Europe.
Most cocoa is produced in West Africa
In the last cocoa season, around 4.9 million tonnes of cocoa were produced worldwide. Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana are by far the two largest cocoa growing countries, accounting for nearly 60 % of global cocoa production, followed by Ecuador with 9 %. In Asia, Indonesia is the largest producer country.
Cocoa production has increased steadily over the past 40 years, with up to 95 % of cocoa beans traded on international commodity markets. The cocoa market is volatile and subject to various trends and fluctuations. The ups and downs are triggered by, among other things, political uncertainties, weather-related production shortfalls and overproduction in producing countries. The last low in prices was reached in 2016/2017, when a bumper harvest caused prices to fall to their lowest level in ten years. Since then, prices have been rising steadily.
Europe is the leading processor of cocoa beans
Cocoa beans are processed around the globe into cocoa mass, cocoa butter, cocoa powder, chocolate or other cocoa products. One third of the annual harvest is ground in Europe. 628,000 tons – or 12 % of the beans – are ground in the Netherlands alone. Switzerland processes around 53,000 tons of cocoa, which corresponds to about one percent of the global cocoa production.
Import of cocoa to Switzerland
Switzerland imports cocoa beans mainly from Ghana and Ecuador. In 2022, around 142'187 tons of cocoa and cocoa products were imported into Switzerland. This corresponds to an import of around 124'145 tonnes of cocoa bean equivalents*. Only a small part is imported in the form of semi-finished or finished products. Cocoa bean equivalents are exported mainly in the form of unfilled chocolate and cocoa paste.
*The term cocoa bean equivalents refers to the sum of all imported cocoa products (i.e., cocoa butter, cocoa powder, etc.) converted into cocoa beans by the conversion factors set by the ICCO. The conversion factors used in determining the bean equivalent of cocoa products: cocoa butter 1.33, cocoa paste/liquor 1.25, cocoa powder and cocoa cake 1.18, chocolate and chocolate products 0.40, chocolate products identified as containing only half the normal quantity of cocoa 0.20. Source: ICCO, QBCS, Vol. XLVIII No. 1.