Germany, a country with no cocoa plantations, earned $6.3 billion from chocolate exports in 2023. Meanwhile, Africa, home to over 70% of global cocoa production, earned only $5.7 billion from raw cocoa exports in 2022.

Why the Disparity in Africa’s Cocoa Industry?

The disparity between Africa’s cocoa production and the global chocolate market’s profits stems from structural imbalances in the chocolate value chain, neocolonial trade systems, and historical barriers rooted in imperialism. Despite Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana accounting for over 60% of the world’s cocoa production, Africa retains only a fraction of the $130 billion global chocolate market, earning $5.7 billion in 2022 from cocoa exports, compared to Germany’s $6.3 billion from chocolate exports in 2023. This disparity arises from the following key factors:

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1. Imperialist Foundations of Africa’s Raw Material Dependency

During colonial rule, European powers structured African economies to serve as raw material suppliers for their industries. Cocoa production, for example, was introduced to West Africa in the late 19th century to supply European chocolate industries. Infrastructure, such as railways and ports, was built to transport raw materials to Europe, not to foster local industrialization. This legacy persists today, keeping Africa’s economies dependent on raw exports.

• Case Study: The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), later succeeded by the World Trade Organization (WTO), established trade rules favoring developed nations. African cocoa-producing countries face high tariffs and quotas when exporting processed cocoa products like chocolate, while raw cocoa beans enter European markets tariff-free. This discourages value addition in Africa.

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2. Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)

Economic Partnership Agreements between the European Union (EU) and African nations have been criticized for perpetuating unequal trade relations. These agreements often include clauses that prevent African countries from imposing export taxes on raw materials, a policy tool they could otherwise use to encourage local processing.

• Example: In Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the world’s top cocoa producers, export taxes on raw cocoa could have incentivized local chocolate production. However, these countries face pressure from international trade agreements to avoid such taxes, ensuring Europe remains the processing hub.

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3. Oppressive Intellectual Property Laws

The control of patents and trademarks by multinational corporations further undermines Africa’s ability to benefit from cocoa processing. Western companies own patents for key chocolate-making processes and branding, leaving African manufacturers with limited access to global markets.

• Data Point: The global chocolate market, worth over $62 billion annually, is dominated by European and North American firms like Nestlé, Mars, and Ferrero. African chocolate brands struggle to compete due to lack of market access and intellectual property constraints.

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4. Infrastructure and Funding Deficits

While trade laws and agreements are significant barriers, the lack of infrastructure and financing in African countries also plays a role. However, these deficits are often the result of systemic underdevelopment orchestrated during and after colonial rule.

• Example: The Lomé Convention, signed in 1975, promised European development aid to African nations. In practice, much of this aid was tied to conditions that benefited European contractors and companies, leaving African nations dependent on foreign expertise and machinery for industrial projects.

An example of how aid under agreements like the Lomé Convention was tied to conditions that disproportionately benefited European contractors can be seen in the use of tied aid. A significant portion of the aid provided through the European Development Fund (EDF), which supported the Lomé Convention, required recipient countries to spend the aid on goods and services from European companies.

Specific Examples:

Infrastructure projects: Many infrastructure projects in Africa funded under the Lomé framework were executed by European firms. For instance, large-scale projects such as roads, bridges, or ports funded by EDF often mandated that the construction contracts go to European companies like Bouygues (France) or Hochtief (Germany), sidelining African contractors and expertise.

Machinery and Technology: Aid was frequently tied to the purchase of European-made machinery and industrial equipment, even when cheaper or more appropriate alternatives were available locally or from non-European suppliers. This increased dependency on European maintenance and expertise, creating recurring costs for African nations.

Proportion of Tied Aid: Studies from the era indicate that 70%-80% of development aid from Europe was tied to such conditions. For example, in the 1980s, tied aid cost African countries an estimated 15%-30% more than untied aid would have for similar projects. This inflated costs while ensuring profits flowed back to Europe.

Dependency Example: The reliance on European contractors created a cycle of dependency. African countries often lacked the technical capacity to maintain infrastructure or machinery independently, necessitating continued European involvement, often at additional costs.

Impact:

While the Lomé Convention claimed to promote development, these tied conditions undermined the very goal of fostering self-sufficiency in African nations. Instead, they entrenched Europe’s economic dominance and Africa’s dependency on external expertise and supply chains.

This experience is a critical example of how ostensibly developmental aid agreements perpetuated structural inequalities.

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5. The Role of Corruption and Leadership

Weak governance and corruption compound the issue. African leaders have sometimes signed exploitative agreements with foreign powers in exchange for personal gain. This lack of accountability hinders efforts to break free from dependency.

• Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, warned, “Africa is not poor. It is impoverished by systems that extract wealth while leaving behind poverty.”

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6. Reclaiming Economic Sovereignty

Efforts to address these systemic barriers include:

• The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): Aims to create a single market for goods and services across Africa, encouraging intra-African trade and industrialization.
• Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire’s Cocoa Initiative: In 2019, the two countries imposed a “living income differential” on cocoa exports, increasing prices to benefit farmers.

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The economic disparity between Africa’s cocoa exports and Europe’s chocolate exports is not merely a result of infrastructure deficits but deeply rooted in imperialist trade systems, oppressive agreements, and leadership failures.

To transform this narrative, African countries must renegotiate trade agreements, invest in local industrialization, and combat corruption. Only by breaking these chains can Africa fully benefit from its rich resources.

This article is to draw the attention of all descendants of Africa to the importance of addressing systemic injustices to ensure Africa’s economic transformation.