Trouble for Ghana as China starts exporting cocoa to some European countries

China is famously known for its flawless act of ‘duplicating’ and they have done that in style by producing and exporting cocoa to Europe, beginning with Belgium.

A report from China Daily reveals that South China’s island province of Hainan has exported cocoa beans to Belgium for the first time, according to the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (CATAS).

The first batch of 500 kg of cocoa beans, worth 3,044 euros (about $3,600), was produced in Xinglong, a township of Hainan with a tropical climate.

“Cocoa is a raw material for making chocolate. With the increasing demand for chocolates, Hainan has been expanding its cocoa planting area and making breakthroughs in technological development,” said Hao Zhaoyun, a researcher with CATAS.

“As Belgium is dubbed ‘kingdom of chocolates,’ exports to the country indicate that our cocoa production standards have been recognized by the international community,” Hao added.

Cocoa is mainly produced in tropical regions such as West Africa. Ghana and Ivory Coast are the leading exporters of cocoa to the rest of the world but when it comes to quality, Ghana stands tall.

In 2019, Ivory Coast was the world’s leading cocoa bean exporter, based on export value. That year, the Ivory Coast exported about 3.57 billion U.S. dollars worth of cocoa beans worldwide.

Well, since China has found a means o produce cocoa although their country is not a tropical region, you know what that means to the prospect of Ghana and Ivory Coast in that regard.

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