ACCRA, Nov. 13 – Ghana will stop exporting raw cocoa beans by 2030 and process its entire crop at home under a phased plan announced in the 2027 Budget, Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson has told Parliament.
Presenting the Budget Statement and Economic Policy on Thursday, Dr Forson said the country would process at least 50 per cent of its cocoa locally by 2028 and 100 per cent by 2030, “completing the transition towards a ban on raw cocoa exports”.
“The country that grows the bean must retain a far greater share of the industry built around it,” he said, according to the Budget Statement published by the Ministry of Finance. He added that Ghanaian enterprises, researchers, brands and skilled workers must participate in the cocoa value chain.
From beans to chocolate
According to the Budget, domestic capacity will expand beyond primary grinding into cocoa liquor, butter, cake, powder, chocolate, cosmetics and other finished products. Cocoa value addition is the eighth and final intervention under the US$3 billion Commercial Agriculture pillar of the government’s New Economy programme for 2027 to 2030.
Ghana, the world’s second-largest cocoa producer, currently processes between 30 and 40 per cent of its beans locally, Reuters reported. The country has installed processing capacity of 504,780 metric tonnes, but existing processors have been operating below 50 per cent of capacity because most beans are sold on the international market, the news agency said.
Falling prices, weaker harvest expected
The plan comes as world cocoa prices fall. According to figures in the Budget cited by 3News, cocoa averaged US$4,543.15 per tonne in the first nine months of 2026, down 48.9 per cent from the same period in 2025, although Ghana still earned US$3.0 billion from cocoa exports over the period, up 15.9 per cent year on year.
The Budget anticipates a decline in cocoa production in 2027 because of the effects of El Niño. Reuters reported that production is expected to fall by 16 per cent this season.
Trade, Agribusiness and Industry Minister Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare argued earlier this month that Ghana must process at least half of its cocoa at home to protect the economy from swings in world prices, 3News reported.
The Budget Statement does not name the law that will enforce the export ban or detail the financing that processors will receive to expand capacity.
Sources: Ministry of Finance (2027 Budget Statement), Reuters, 3News, MyJoyOnline.
Featured image: Cocoa beans drying in Mpenkro, Ghana. Photo: Francesco Veronesi / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).