In a context of declining supply and soaring cocoa prices, Chinese investments are building new cocoa processing plants in the heart of West Africa, the world center for the production of this raw material.

China Light Industry Nanning Design Engineering has completed the construction of the largest cocoa factory in the African country and a cocoa bean warehouse in the suburbs of Abidjan, the economic capital. Another factory is located in the coastal city of San Pedro, in the southwest of the country. Each of the factories is expected to have an annual treatment capacity of 50,000 tons. In neighboring Ghana, the world's second largest cocoa producer, Chinese companies are also building cocoa processing plants. Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire together control 60 to 70% of global cocoa bean production and are the birthplace of the best beans in the

According to Kristy Leissle, founder and CEO of the African Cocoa Marketplace, by building and building its own processing plants in Africa, China was likely to better secure its supply of cocoa beans before they were shipped to Europe. For the latter, it is “a possibility for the creation of these new processing plants is that China sees an opportunity to move some of this cocoa trade in its favor, which would be understandable given the growth in chocolate consumption by China itself”.

In 2019, Ghana and China agreed to jointly build a $100 million chocolate processing plant in Sefwi Wiawso, in the northwest of the country, with an annual processing capacity of 50,000 tons of cocoa beans. In 2022, Côte d'Ivoire exported $3.33 billion worth of cocoa beans, almost half of which to the Netherlands, Belgium and the United States, while its exports to China only amounted to $369,000