| Study Period | 2019 - 2030 |
| Base Year For Estimation | 2024 |
| Market Size (2025) | USD 15.04 Billion |
| Market Size (2030) | USD 16.85 Billion |
| CAGR (2025 - 2030) | 2.30 % |
| Fastest Growing Market | Asia-Pacific |
| Largest Market | Europe |
Cocoa Value Chain Market Analysis
The Cocoa Beans Market size is estimated at USD 15.04 billion in 2025, and is expected to reach USD 16.85 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 2.3% during the forecast period (2025-2030).
- The demand for cocoa beans as intermediates is predicted to rise as the chocolate industry in emerging economies, such as China and India. The product finds application in industries such as functional food and beverage, confectionery, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. There has been a rising demand for chocolate variants, such as milk chocolate, brownies, and dark chocolate.
- According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in the year 2020, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Ecuador were the critical producer of cocoa beans volumed at 2,200.0 thousand metric tons, followed by 800.0 thousand metric tons, 739.4 thousand metric ton, 340.1 thousand metric ton, and 327.9 thousand metric ton.
- Small traders buy cocoa beans directly from farmers, visiting them one by one. In the second stage, small buyers sell the beans to wholesalers, who will re-sell them to exporters. At the other extreme of the spectrum, cocoa beans are sold directly to exporters by farmers' cooperatives or even now exported by the cooperative.
- Although the cocoa sector is growing significantly, various vital risks on the cocoa supply side can limit the potential expansion of the industry. Price volatility and income disparity across the value chain remain a persistent challenge in the sector. These challenges can be addressed by coordinated efforts between industry participants, including governments, standard-setting bodies, development organizations, and private companies, to ensure that the continued growth in cocoa demand is equitably shared across the value chain.
Cocoa Value Chain Market Trends
Sustainable Sourcing to Improve Economies for Stakeholders
Cocoa bean production faces many social and environmental sustainability risks. These include forced and child labor, unfavorable labor conditions, conflict over land rights, and the growing of cocoa in protected forests, which must be addressed. Also, the complexity of human rights and environmental issues, including poverty, child labor, forest destruction, and soil contamination, have been identified among cocoa farmers, who are primarily smallholders. Therefore, industry participants shifted their focus towards responsible or sustainable cocoa sourcing policy to undertake activities to support cacao farmers.
This includes enhancing the productivity and quality of cacao beans and improving farmers' living standards by providing farming support and education. UTZ Certified, Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade, and Organic are the cocoa sector's primary Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS). Côte d'Ivoire, UTZ, Rainforest Alliance, and organic certifications rely on the CCC platform SYDORE to check volumes, dates, and seller/buyer information.
Many prominent players are targeted to achieve sustainable cocoa bean sourcing with quality standards and being utilized in delivering healthy cocoa bean products. For instance, in April 2021, Ferrero reached fully sustainable cocoa bean sourcing across its supply chain to help improve cocoa farmers' living conditions and foster sustainable practices. Ferrero sources sustainable cocoa through leading certification bodies and other independently managed standards such as Rainforest Alliance (UTZ), Fairtrade, and Cocoa Horizons. This ensures the company can optimally benefit from its different strengths, enriching its overarching cocoa sustainability strategy.
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Concentration in the Global Cocoa Beans Value Chain
On the production side, the Ivory Coast and Ghana dominate the market together, accounting for more than 60% of the production. Any supply chain disruptions in these countries could lead to major cocoa shortages. The complexity of the cocoa market is characterized by corporations' ease of access to resources and achieving economies of scale. This has led to increased vertical and horizontal integration in the industry. As a result, a limited number of large trading and processing companies control a significant share of global and local cocoa markets.
Chocolate manufacturers in Europe tend to either process cocoa beans themselves or purchase semi-finished cocoa products from European processors, making competition for exporters of semi-finished cocoa products fierce. Multinationals such as Barry Callebaut, Cargill, ADM Cemoi, ECOM/Dutch Cocoa, Olam, Nederland SA, and Crown Holland (only organic) are based in Europe and supply the whole range of semi-finished cocoa products to the European food and confectionery industry. For instance, in October 2022, Barry Callebaut launched the second generation of the chocolate category by redesigning the farming, fermentation, and roasting of cocoa beans to address the changing consumer preferences. Further, in April 2021, Mondelez International and Olum Food Ingredients (OFI) has collabortaed in Indonesia with 2,000 hectare cocoa farming module to create the world's single largest sustainable commercial cocoa farm.
These ultimately increase the cost efficiency along the chain, which will finally be passed on to various stakeholders across the chain. Consolidations in cocoa processing over the past few years have been driven primarily by the boom in commodity prices. The industry has also well integrated vertically, expanding activities from sustainable sourcing beans to producing cocoa-based products.
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Cocoa Value Chain Industry Overview
Cocoa Value Chain Market News
- October 2022: A wholly-owned Ghanaian company, Niche Cocoa Industry, has collaborated with Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co., of Milwaukee, in a leased 44,000-square-foot cocoa processing plant in the Franklin Business Park, United States. It is the first United States facility for Niche, in which the largest cocoa processor in Ghana has entered the United States to strengthen the cocoa food and beverage industry.
- September 2022: Pronatec Swiss has become the country's first 100% organic cocoa processing plant by completing its test phase and is gearing up production. Pronatec is an organic production plant that processes about 15,000 metric tons of organic cocoa annually.
- March 2022: Ivory Coast publicized its initiative to launch a pilot project to trace cocoa beans from farm to market, aiming to tackle deforestation and child labor issues. This new system would allow manufacturers and consumers to know cocoa beans'' origin and production conditions.
- November 2021: Cargill completed a USD 100 million expansion of its cocoa processing facilities in Yopougon, Coted'Ivoiree. This move adds significant volumes to the company's cocoa-grinding capacity.
Cocoa Value Chain Industry Segmentation
A value chain is a series of consecutive steps to create a finished product, from its initial design to its arrival at a customer's door. The chain identifies each step in the process at which value is added, including the sourcing, manufacturing, and marketing stages of its production. The report covers a detailed supply chain analysis and value chain analysis of the cocoa bean industry at a global level. A typical cocoa beans value chain system involves the operation of five major segments: cocoa bean production, sourcing and trading, marketing, processing, distribution, and retailing to the final consumers. Stakeholders across the value chain, the price margin at each stakeholder level, and issues prevalent in the cocoa beans value chain are also provided in the report.
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Cocoa Value Chain Market Research FAQs
How big is the Cocoa Beans Market?
The Cocoa Beans Market size is expected to reach USD 15.04 billion in 2025 and grow at a CAGR of 2.30% to reach USD 16.85 billion by 2030.
What is the current Cocoa Beans Market size?
In 2025, the Cocoa Beans Market size is expected to reach USD 15.04 billion.
Which is the fastest growing region in Cocoa Beans Market?
Asia-Pacific is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR over the forecast period (2025-2030).
Which region has the biggest share in Cocoa Beans Market?
In 2025, the Europe accounts for the largest market share in Cocoa Beans Market.
What years does this Cocoa Beans Market cover, and what was the market size in 2024?
In 2024, the Cocoa Beans Market size was estimated at USD 14.69 billion. The report covers the Cocoa Beans Market historical market size for years: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The report also forecasts the Cocoa Beans Market size for years: 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030.
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Cocoa Value Chain Industry Report
Statistics for the 2025 Cocoa Beans Value Chain Analysis market share, size and revenue growth rate, created by Mordor Intelligence™ Industry Reports. Cocoa Beans Value Chain Analysis analysis includes a market forecast outlook for 2025 to 2030 and historical overview. Get a sample of this industry analysis as a free report PDF download.
