Africa Gets Under 10% of $120bn Chocolate Market
The Cocoa and Coffee Farmers Alliance Association of Africa has revealed that the continent captures less than 10 per cent of the estimated 120 billion global chocolate market, even though African farmers produce approximately 70 per cent of the world’s cocoa beans. The disclosure underscores persistent structural inequities in the global cocoa value chain, where raw material production remains decoupled from profitable downstream processing and retail segments.
Adeola Adegoke, Global President of COCEFAAA, announced these figures in a statement posted on his official LinkedIn account, coinciding with the association’s planned unveiling of its three-year development agenda on April 9, 2026. The strategic initiative aims to reposition African stakeholders within global cocoa and coffee markets while protecting the interests of smallholder farmers who constitute the backbone of the continent’s agricultural economy.
The association itself recently underwent institutional transformation, transitioning from the Cocoa Farmers Alliance Association of Africa to its current form on March 24, 2026. The reorganisation followed a board resolution to merge cocoa and coffee stakeholders under a unified platform spanning West, Central, and East Africa, reflecting the shared socio-economic and environmental challenges confronting both commodities.
Adegoke identified poor market access, regulatory constraints, and volatility in global pricing as systemic barriers that have historically disadvantaged African producers. The continent’s limited value addition capacity means cocoa beans continue to be exported in raw form, effectively transferring wealth to processing centres in Europe and North America where chocolate manufacturing generates substantially higher returns.
The coffee sector presents an equally stark disparity. Despite Africa’s status as the historical origin of coffee cultivation, the continent accounts for merely 3 per cent of the estimated 263.5 billion global coffee market. This marginalisation persists even as African nations remain significant producers of arabica and robusta varieties.
COCEFAAA’s development agenda targets multiple structural deficiencies depressing farmer incomes. Low yields, weak processing infrastructure, climate change impacts, pest and disease pressures, and stringent international compliance requirements collectively constrain productivity and profitability. Adegoke noted that these factors frequently leave smallholder farmers earning less than one dollar daily, perpetuating cycles of rural poverty despite their critical role in global supply chains.
The 2024–2025 cocoa price surge exposed additional vulnerabilities in existing market arrangements. While global prices escalated, many African farmers failed to capture proportional benefits due to fixed pricing systems that insulated traders and processors from commodity volatility while excluding producers from upside gains.
Adegoke acknowledged incremental progress in select African nations. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which collectively dominate global cocoa output, have expanded domestic processing capacity and improved traceability systems to capture greater value within their borders. These efforts represent nascent steps toward vertical integration that could eventually redistribute economic returns more equitably across the value chain.
COCEFAAA’s three-year plan emphasises sustainable production methodologies, improved agroforestry practices, strengthened cooperative systems, enhanced policy advocacy, increased local processing, and infrastructure development. The initiative aligns with continental targets to expand Africa’s share of the global coffee market to 20 per cent by 2030, while simultaneously promoting intra-African trade and domestic consumption to reduce dependency on volatile export markets.