Cargill to expand cocoa processing facilities in Ivory Coast and Ghana

Cargill has announced its plans to invest more than $113m to expand its cocoa processing facilities in Yopougon, Ivory Coast, and Tema, Ghana.

It plans to invest a $100m to raise the production capacity of the Yopougon facility by 50%. This investment will create 85 full-time local jobs and several indirect jobs.

Much of the additional capacity in the cocoa processing plant in Yopougon will be focused on producing Gerkens, a deeply rich brown cocoa powder.

The company will invest $13m in the Tema site in Ghana, with the aim of improving capacity by 20%.

Cargill is also investing an additional $12.3m in the two sites over the next three years. The company aims to boost sustainability and to introduce a supply chain traceability programme in these two countries.

The company will invest $7.7m in Ivory Coast and $3.4m in Ghana. These programmes aim to improve the safety and wellbeing of children and families in cocoa farming areas.

Cargill West-Africa managing director Lionel Soulard said: “We aim to shift a greater share of our global grinding activities to the countries of origin, so we can support the establishment of a broader, local agri-food industry. Working directly with both governments and other key stakeholders, we are committed to economic growth, building sustainable local businesses and diversifying sources of income for cocoa farming communities.”

These investments form part of the Cargill Cocoa Promise, which is a commitment to boost the lives of cocoa farmers and their communities.

Cargill has retained a presence in Ivory Coast since 1997. It employs 490 people in four locations: Abidjan, Daloa, Gagnoa and San Pedro. As well as cocoa, it also sources and trades cotton from Ivory Coast and neighbouring markets in West Africa.

The company has been sourcing cocoa from Ghana for more than four decades. In 2008, it opened a cocoa processing facility in Tema with approximately 245 employees to serve customers locally and globally.

In 2016, the firm added a licensed buying company (LBC) called Cargill Kokoo Sourcing to its Ghanaian operations.