The Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC) Ghana Limited has secured firm offtake commitments across the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia for Ghana’s semi-finished cocoa products, in a move that strengthens the commercial footing of the country’s push toward domestic value addition under President John Dramani Mahama’s 50 percent local processing mandate.
The commitments, secured by CMC Managing Director Wisdom Kofi Dogbey (D.Min, D.Hum) during a series of engagements with leading Gulf commodities institutions and processing bodies, are aimed at guaranteeing demand for cocoa liquor, butter, cake, and powder produced from Ghana’s existing and currently underutilised grinding capacity.
By locking in buyers before output ramps up, CMC is moving to close one of the mandate’s biggest commercial gaps: ensuring that higher domestic grindings convert into secured export earnings rather than unsold stock.
Dubai: A Sourcing-to-Shelf Blueprint
In Dubai, Dr. Dogbey met the leadership of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre’s (DMCC) coffee and tea membership, which runs a fully integrated model, sourcing raw materials directly from producers and converting them into finished consumer goods. A dedicated DMCC cocoa membership is expected to commence, and both sides treated the discussions as a template for how Ghana’s cocoa could enter comparable value chains in the region.
Ahmad Hamza, a senior DMCC executive, described the proposed push to expand cocoa export into the UAE as win-win.
He characterised DMCC as an ecosystem that provides the right environment for members to operate seamlessly, citing the coffee and tea membership as proof of a working raw-material-to-finished-goods chain. Replicating that structure for cocoa, he said, would boost exports of Ghanaian cocoa derivatives to DMCC’s cocoa members, plugging Ghana’s semi-finished products directly into an established base of processors and traders.
For Ghana, DMCC offers a gateway to route semi-finished cocoa into wider Middle Eastern and Asian markets, diversifying a customer base long concentrated among European grinders and strengthening CMC’s hand on origin premiums and differentials.
Riyadh: Cocoa Meets Vision 2030
In Riyadh, further engagements produced commitments to import Ghanaian cocoa into Saudi Arabia in support of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 food-sustainability goals. Anchoring cocoa supply within Saudi Arabia’s food-security and economic-diversification agenda gives Ghana a strategically aligned, long-term buyer for its semi-finished products.
Saudi Arabia’s expanding confectionery and food-processing sectors make the Kingdom an increasingly significant destination for value-added cocoa, and a natural partner for a Ghana determined to capture more of the value chain.
Existing Capacity, Not New Plants
Officials were clear that the value-addition mandate does not hinge on building new factories. It is designed to draw on installed processing capacity that already exists but currently runs underutilised. Guaranteed offtake for the resulting products is intended to bring that idle capacity into fuller use, increasing domestic conversion without the risk of producing volumes that have no assured market.
As the sole authorised exporter of Ghana’s cocoa, CMC’s role is shifting under Dr. Dogbey’s leadership from marketing raw beans to building the commercial partnerships that ensure expanded grindings are matched by real demand.
The Gulf commitments mark a significant step in that transition, and a signal of confidence in Ghana’s value-addition agenda from two of the world’s fastest-growing markets.
