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A farmer spreads cocoa beans to dry at a plantation in Agboville in the Agneby Tiassa region, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire. <\/p>\n
AFP <\/p>\n
The South American country hopes to expand its role as Swiss chocolate makers\u00a0seek\u00a0more resilient and diversified sources of cocoa.\n<\/p>\n
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August 12, 2026 – 09:00\n<\/p>\n
After two consecutive poor cocoa harvests in West Africa, in 2023-2024 and 2025-2026, Switzerland\u2019s chocolate industry has been forced to confront a longstanding vulnerability: its dependence on a small number of suppliers for one of its key raw materials.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cocoa production in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire and Ghana, which together account for around 60% of global supply, was hit by adverse weather conditions, pests and diseases. The 2023-2024 crop was further affected by the El Ni\u00f1o climate phenomenon, which brought droughts, excessive rainfall and unusually high temperatures, reducing yields and worsening disease outbreaks.<\/p>\n
As a result, the raw material behind Switzerland\u2019s most famous culinary export saw its average international price rise from roughly US$2,500 (CHF2,030) per tonne in 2022 to a record of more than US$10,000 per tonne in 2024, according to Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) futures data. Although prices have since retreated, they remain highly volatile as the market continues to respond to uncertainty over global supply.<\/p>\n
>>>Despite not growing cocoa, chocolate is a firm part of Swiss DNA, especially abroad:<\/strong><\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n Best of SRG content\n <\/p>\n How Switzerland became known as the land of chocolate <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Jan 7, 2026 <\/p>\n Swiss chocolate is part of the country\u2019s identity. But its global success owes as much to clever marketing as to taste and quality. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more: How Switzerland became known as the land of chocolate The cocoa price shock has also affected major Swiss companies. Barry CallebautExternal link<\/a>, the world\u2019s largest chocolate manufacturer, reported lower sales volumes as cocoa prices soared in 2025.\u202f<\/p>\n \u201cThe increase in prices recorded in recent years made the industry realise that there is a huge dependence on West Africa, particularly C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire,\u201d says Christian Robin, managing director of the Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa. \u201cI believe that, in the coming years, Africa will remain extremely relevant. But, of course, companies are trying to diversify more. This is a clear trend, involving countries such as Peru, Ecuador and, of course, Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n The relevance of the issue for Switzerland goes far beyond the symbolism of chocolate. According to Chocosuisse (Swiss Association of Chocolate Manufacturers), the sector generates around CHF2.2 billion per year and the country exports more than 70% of its national production.<\/p>\n Data from the Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa indicate that the country processes approximately 57,000 tonnes of cocoa annually, a raw material imported from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. As a result, the crop failures that affected main producers in recent years quickly became a concern for one of Switzerland\u2019s most traditional industries.<\/p>\n This year, cocoa prices have eased as weather conditions improved. Even so, prices remain well above the levels seen before the West African crisis, indicating that the market continues to face structural pressures.<\/p>\n Crisis exposes vulnerabilities in the global supply chain\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Robert Finger, professor of agricultural economics and policy at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich, the decline in African cocoa harvests reflects some of the growing resilience challenges faced by agricultural and food systems, driven, among other factors, by the increasing relevance of extreme weather events and the resulting crop losses, as well as market and institutional risks. \u00a0<\/p>\n Cocoa is particularly vulnerable to climate change because it depends on relatively stable temperature and rainfall conditions and is concentrated in a narrow tropical belt.<\/p>\n For Finger, Swiss chocolate companies will need to adapt and seek new suppliers, even if that implies higher costs.<\/p>\n \u201cDiversification of production, sourcing and income sources is certainly a viable strategy for dealing with these challenges. However, diversification always comes at a cost. When activities are diversified, cost advantages generally cannot be fully exploited, and transaction costs increase,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n >>>Brazil isn\u2019t the only country in South America with a Swiss cocoa connection:<\/strong><\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n International cooperation\n <\/p>\n How a project in Peru supports sustainable cocoa \u2013 and serves Swiss interests <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Jan 13, 2026 <\/p>\n Switzerland supports farmers in Peru so they can produce in a more social and green way \u2013 and so chocolate producers have access to cocoa. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more: How a project in Peru supports sustainable cocoa \u2013 and serves Swiss interests One possible avenue for diversification lies in Brazil.\u202f<\/p>\n For much of the 20th century, the country was among the world\u2019s leading cocoa producers. Concentrated in the southern part of the state of Bahia, cocoa cultivation transformed the regional economy and placed Brazil second only to C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire in global rankings.<\/p>\n However, from the late 1980s onward, the spread of witches\u2019 broom disease, which attacks cocoa trees, caused a sharp decline in production and reduced Brazil\u2019s relevance in international markets.<\/p>\n Today, Brazil still ranks among the world\u2019s ten largest cocoa producers, with around 200,000 tonnes per year. Yet it remains far behind C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire and Ghana, which together produce 2.4 million tonnes annually, according to the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO).<\/p>\n \u201cStructural weaknesses, particularly in West Africa, should indeed create long-lasting and structural opportunities for Brazil in the coming years, especially given the growing perception that cocoa can become a more profitable crop than it has been in the past,\u201d says Lucca Bezzon, a market intelligence analyst at StoneX, a global financial services and market consulting company.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n Brazil plays only a marginal role in Switzerland\u2019s cocoa imports.\u202f<\/p>\n Swiss customs data show that imports of Brazilian cocoa beans increased from 64 tonnes in 2023 to 99 tonnes in 2024, a rise of almost 55%. Even so, Brazil accounted for less than 1% of Swiss cocoa bean imports, highlighting that any expansion is still at an early stage as Swiss buyers continue to rely primarily on suppliers in West Africa and Latin America.<\/p>\n As a result, the Brazilian government has set a short-term target of increasing national cocoa production to 300,000 tonnes. Seeking to regain relevance, producers in the state of Bahia are already looking for investment from Switzerland to access the Swiss market.<\/p>\n \u201cOur Swiss importer raised the possibility of certifying our farms. We intend to propose a partnership under which the importer could help finance certification and provide greater incentives for producers,\u201d says Orlantildes Santos, a cocoa farmer from Bahia and president of Coopercabruca, the Cooperative of Cocoa Producers of Southern Bahia. According to him, the cooperative produces 550 tonnes of cocoa per year and exports around 20% of that volume to Switzerland.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/7299f6.webp\")
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