Côte d’Ivoire is the world's largest producer of cocoa beans. But ask which country exports the most chocolate, and the answer is Germany, a country where cocoa is not a major agricultural crop. That contrast is neither accidental nor evidence that cocoa beans lack value. Rather, it shows that suppliers of raw materials and makers of finished products occupy different positions in the same global industry.
The clearest comparable reference period is calendar year 2024. According to FAOSTAT, Côte d’Ivoire harvested 1,890,442 tonnes of cocoa beans. In the same year, World Bank WITS data sourced from UN Comtrade show German exports worth about 6.93 billion USD under HS 1806, the tariff classification for chocolate and other food preparations containing cocoa. Sources: FAOSTAT via Our World in Data; WITS HS 1806.
These figures measure different things. Cocoa production is measured by agricultural output in tonnes; chocolate exports are measured by trade value in USD. Moreover, HS 1806 covers prepared foods containing cocoa, not just the chocolate bars sold in shops. That distinction is essential to interpreting the rankings.
The 10 largest cocoa-bean producers in 2024
| Rank | Country | Cocoa-bean production, 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Côte d’Ivoire | 1,890,442 tonnes |
| 2 | Indonesia | 632,702 tonnes |
| 3 | Ghana | 530,000 tonnes |
| 4 | Ecuador | 403,699 tonnes |
| 5 | Nigeria | 350,000 tonnes |
| 6 | Cameroon | 320,000 tonnes |
| 7 | Brazil | 297,509 tonnes |
| 8 | Peru | 157,253 tonnes |
| 9 | Sierra Leone | 93,750 tonnes |
| 10 | Colombia | 67,678 tonnes |
Source: FAOSTAT, Cocoa beans, Production, calendar year 2024. Some country estimates draw on international organizations or estimation methods, notably for Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon, and are not equally certain as survey results. See FAOSTAT/Our World in Data and the detailed country-ranking compilation.
The top ten show the concentration of cocoa farming in tropical regions. Five are African countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Sierra Leone. Four are in South America, while Indonesia is the only Asian country on this list.
Côte d’Ivoire accounts for roughly 36% of global output in the FAOSTAT series. Ghana remains a major supplier despite lower production in 2024 than in the preceding year. Indonesia ranks second in this particular FAOSTAT dataset, but that ranking should not be substituted directly for International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) figures. The ICCO uses a cocoa year running from October to September and may apply different estimates and revisions.
Ecuador and Peru are notable South American sources, while Brazil has both agricultural production and domestic processing. Sierra Leone and Colombia round out the ten. Sierra Leone's published series is volatile, so a year-on-year change should not be interpreted as a sustained trend without examining the historical data.
High production does not mean every bean is exported
To see how upstream production reaches global markets, the relevant indicator changes to exports of cocoa beans under HS 180100, rather than harvested tonnage. The table below compares the same ten producing countries with their 2024 export values reported by WITS. It is not a global top-ten ranking of cocoa-bean exporters.
| Producing country | Cocoa-bean exports, 2024 | Data note |
|---|---|---|
| Côte d’Ivoire | 3,993.57 million USD | Reported |
| Indonesia | 80.61 million USD | Reported |
| Ghana | 1,075.89 million USD | Reported |
| Ecuador | 3,107.80 million USD | Reported |
| Nigeria | 1,631.08 million USD | Reported |
| Cameroon | Not shown | Not zero |
| Brazil | 0.65 million USD | Reported |
| Peru | 795.69 million USD | Reported |
| Sierra Leone | Not shown | Not zero |
| Colombia | 65.26 million USD | Reported |
Source: WITS/UN Comtrade, HS 180100, 2024. Values are rounded for readability. “Not shown” means the country did not appear in the reporting table consulted, not that no beans were exported. International trade statistics depend on reporter coverage and compilation methods.
The gap between agricultural output and export value reveals three features of the industry.
- Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Ecuador are significant international sellers of cocoa beans. Selling beans, however, is not the same as exporting finished chocolate.
- Indonesia and Brazil produce substantial quantities, but raw-bean exports do not automatically follow their harvesting ranks. Domestic demand, imports, processing and trade structures must be evaluated separately.
- For countries absent from this table, partner-country records or national trade statistics are needed. Missing data must not be entered as zero simply to complete the comparison.
A February 2026 report by the Netherlands' Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI) also identifies Côte d’Ivoire as a major global cocoa-grinding center. The simplistic picture of Africa performing only farm work while Europe handles every subsequent step therefore misses important realities. Source: CBI, European cocoa demand.
The 10 largest exporters of chocolate and cocoa-containing foods in 2024
| Rank | Country | HS 1806 export value, 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | 6,925.90 million USD |
| 2 | Belgium | 4,448.13 million USD |
| 3 | Poland | 3,261.90 million USD |
| 4 | Italy | 3,122.85 million USD |
| 5 | Netherlands | 2,835.46 million USD |
| 6 | Canada | 2,761.57 million USD |
| 7 | United States | 2,139.23 million USD |
| 8 | France | 1,911.46 million USD |
| 9 | United Kingdom | 1,186.97 million USD |
| 10 | Switzerland | 1,158.17 million USD |
Source: WITS/UN Comtrade, exports to the world under HS 1806, 2024. The ranking covers countries only. It excludes the European Union aggregate, which also appears in WITS, to avoid double-counting member-state trade.
Eight of these ten exporters are European, while Canada and the United States account for the two North American entries. None of the ten leading cocoa-bean producers appears among the ten leading exporters of HS 1806 products in this dataset.
Germany's approximately 6.93 billion USD in HS 1806 exports provides the sharpest contrast. Côte d’Ivoire, the biggest bean producer, exported about 269.56 million USD in the same product group in 2024, also according to WITS. Dividing one total by the other would not measure profit, processing rates or farmers' net income, however: the product mix, costs and raw-material components differ. Source: WITS HS 1806.
Why Germany and other European countries lead chocolate exports
Germany, Belgium and Poland have industrial capacity rather than cocoa plantations
Germany led the 2024 HS 1806 export ranking and has a large confectionery industry. CBI identifies Germany as an important European chocolate-production base. Belgium combines chocolate manufacturing with a major role in raw-material imports through the Port of Antwerp-Bruges. Both countries can import cocoa beans or intermediate cocoa products and export processed foods to other markets. Source: CBI.
Poland ranked third, ahead of Italy and France, by export value in the same year. This is a reminder that export rankings are not rankings of chocolate's reputation or brand popularity. The metric is the value of goods crossing borders, not consumers' perceptions.
Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland do not compete by growing cocoa
Italy ranked fourth, France eighth, the United Kingdom ninth and Switzerland tenth. Their HS 1806 totals reflect exports of processed goods, but a single trade table cannot tell us how much of the value comes from brands, unit prices, formulations or re-exports. Any analysis of competitive advantage must also consider factories, workers, technology, distribution networks and trade agreements.
The Netherlands does more than export chocolate
The Netherlands ranked fifth for HS 1806 in 2024, but Amsterdam's port infrastructure and cocoa-processing industry give it a broader role. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported in April 2026 that the country became the world's leading exporter of cocoa products as a whole in 2025, a category combining chocolate, cocoa paste, cocoa butter and cocoa powder.
“Cocoa products as a whole” is substantially broader than HS 1806. This finding does not show that the Netherlands overtook Germany for chocolate exports in the 2024 table; the two rankings must not be interchanged. Source: Statistics Netherlands, 2026.
Canada and the United States show the divide is not only between Africa and Europe
Canada ranked sixth and the United States seventh despite neither being among the ten leading cocoa-bean producers. Manufacturing and retail markets need not be located where crops are harvested. Yet export value alone cannot establish which country has the largest domestic consumer market: domestic consumption is a separate variable.
Where money and added value arise along the chain
Before cocoa becomes a finished chocolate product, beans are harvested, fermented and dried, traded and shipped, ground into cocoa liquor, separated into cocoa butter and cocoa powder, mixed with other ingredients, molded, packaged and sold through wholesale or retail channels. Each stage adds its own costs, risks and economic value.
Export revenue is gross sales, not profit. More factories do not automatically guarantee higher prices for farmers. Farmgate prices, procurement costs, contractual terms, product quality and bargaining power are determined at different points along the chain. CBI notes that increasing grinding capacity in producer countries can raise the value of exports without automatically passing the gains to farmers. Source: CBI.
Illustrative photograph: hand-tempering chocolate is one stage of processing, not a depiction of a specific country's factory.
The more useful question, then, is not simply why Africa lacks factories. It is who owns assets, who bears costs and who reaches end customers at each step. Bean-producing countries have influence over raw-material supply. Chocolate-processing and exporting countries operate production capacity, distribution and market access. Both realities can coexist; the story need not be framed as one side always winning and the other losing.
Price volatility and trade rules are changing the equation
The cocoa-price crisis of 2023-2025 raised raw-material costs and pressured processors. ICCO's estimates for cocoa year 2024/25 put global output at 4.698 million tonnes and grindings at about 4.602 million tonnes, with grindings falling from the preceding year. These are figures for a cocoa year running from October through September, not FAOSTAT's calendar-year 2024 figures. They indicate direction rather than being directly combinable with the 2024 country tables. Source: ICCO.
Another pressure comes from the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which covers cocoa and chocolate. The European Commission's published timetable lists 30 December 2026 for large and medium-sized operators and 30 June 2027 for most small operators. Traceability of plantation origins and supporting documentation therefore become market-access obligations and business costs. But the regulation does not by itself predict which country will gain or lose what amount of market share. Source: European Commission.
How could producing countries move into chocolate exports?
The opportunity is not limited to building a large chocolate factory immediately. Producing countries can capture more activities in fermentation and quality grading, cocoa grinding, cocoa butter and powder production, and chocolate manufacturing for domestic or overseas markets. Each option, however, requires examining investment costs, energy, transport, consistent quality, distribution access and end-market risk.
Moving factories closer to farms without securing customers or distribution can fail to produce the expected returns. The appropriate economic measures are farmers' net incomes, processors' profits, job quality and export revenue retained in the producing country, not simply rankings of bean tonnage or sales of finished foods.
Key Insight The world's largest cocoa-bean producers need not be its largest chocolate exporters. Growing the raw material, processing it, building brands and reaching consumers are separate capabilities. The key question is not only which country exports more, but whether producing countries can retain more of the value created downstream and genuinely increase producers' earnings.
Using a common calendar-year 2024 reference, the conclusion is clear: Côte d’Ivoire led in cocoa-bean production while Germany led in export value for chocolate and other cocoa-containing foods under HS 1806. This divergence does not prove which country works harder or earns more profit. It shows how economic activity is distributed across distinct stages of a global value chain.
