Meeting growing customer demand for dark brown cocoa powders
Cargill has completed a $100 million expansion of its cocoa processing facilities in Yopougon, Côte d’Ivoire, a move that adds significant volumes to the company’s cocoa-grinding capacity. With this investment, the Yopougon facility is now the single largest cocoa-grinding plant in Africa.
The upgrades, which also included infrastructure enhancements and safety improvements, increased production capacity at the site by 50 percent, creating nearly 100 full-time, local jobs and hundreds of indirect jobs. Importantly, a significant share of the plant’s additional processing capacity will supply high demand, dark brown cocoa powders.
While the Yopougon expansion was driven by unprecedented demand for Cargill’s cocoa and chocolate products, it also supports the company’s larger vision to transform the cocoa sector.
As part of that commitment, Cargill will invest $13 million over the next year in expanded and new programing to create stronger, more resilient cocoa-farming communities in Côte d’Ivoire.