Where Do Cocoa Beans Come From?

The global cocoa trade is a sensitive business. More than half of the world's harvest comes from the Ivory Coast and Ghana. As soon as there are signs for a less-than-optimal harvest, traders become restless. Poor harvest yields have caused the price of cocoa to rise significantly in recent months. May futures of the commodity even rose above $10,000 in intra-day trading over the past two days, although the price dipped below this historic high point each day at market close.

This Statista graphic shows just how dependent the cocoa market is on Africa. Around three quarters of the global cocoa harvest comes from African countries - primarily from the West Africa region. According to estimates by the International Cocoa Organization from February 2024, the global harvest season 2023/24 will be significantly below the level of previous years at around 4.5 million tons. This is mainly due to the significant drop in the harvest volume from Africa, which will fall by around 0.4 million tons to 3.2 million.

The German version of this infographic by René Bocksch can be accessed via this link.