In 2022, West Africa will produce 3.9 million tonnes of cocoa, making it the world’s top producer.
In fact, almost one million farmers in Côte d’Ivoire supply chocolate to major consumers such as Nestlé, Mars, and Hershey. However, the tremendous influence of this industry has resulted in significant forest destruction to cultivate cocoa trees.
This image depicts the top cocoa producers, according to UN FAO data.
Below, we break down the top cocoa producing countries in 2022:
Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s greatest cocoa producer, producing 2.2 million tonnes in 2022, or one-third of the global total.
The cocoa trade in Côte d’Ivoire and Western Africa has been a source of controversy for various reasons. Farmers typically make roughly 5% of the retail price of a chocolate bar and earn $1.20 per day. Furthermore, almost one-third of cocoa farms operate in forests that are designated as protected.
Indonesia, the third largest producer, produced 667,000 tonnes of cocoa, with the US, Malaysia, and Singapore being key buyers. Overall, small-scale farmers produce 95% of the country’s cocoa, but they confront a number of obstacles, including low wages and the negative effects of climate change. These setbacks, combined with the country’s old trees, have caused a drop in yield.
South America’s top producers are Ecuador and Brazil. Ecuador was the world’s greatest cocoa producer in the early 1900s, but movements in the global economy and crop disease caused it to lose ground. The country is today best renowned for its high-quality single-origin chocolate, which is produced on farms throughout the Amazon rainforest.
Global cocoa production was 6.5 million tons, driven by high demand. Over the last few decades, the market has expanded by an average of 3% per year.