The Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC) Ghana Limited has secured firm offtake commitments across the Gulf nations of the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for Ghana’s semi-finished cocoa products.

A statement issued by CMC said the move strengthens the commercial footing of the country’s push toward domestic value addition under President John Dramani Mahama’s 50 per cent local processing mandate.

It said the commitments, secured by Dr Wisdom Kofi Dogbey, the CMC Managing Director during a series of engagements with leading Gulf commodities institutions and processing bodies, were aimed at guaranteeing demand for cocoa liquor, butter, cake, and powder produced from Ghana’s existing and currently underutilised grinding capacity.

The statement said locking in buyers before output ramps up, CMC was moving to close one of the mandate’s biggest commercial gaps: ensuring that higher domestic grindings convert into secured export earnings rather than unsold stock.

It said in Dubai, Dr Dogbey met the leadership of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre’s (DMCC) coffee and tea membership, which runs a fully integrated model, sourcing raw materials directly from producers and converting them into finished consumer goods.

The statement said a dedicated DMCC cocoa membership was expected to commence, and both sides treated the discussions as a template for how Ghana’s cocoa could enter comparable value chains in the region.

Mr Ahmad Hamza, a senior DMCC executive, described the proposed push to expand cocoa export into the AE as a win-win.

He characterised the DMCC as an ecosystem that provides the right environment for members to operate seamlessly, citing the coffee and tea membership as proof of a working raw-material-to finished-goods chain.

Replicating that structure for cocoa, he said, would boost exports of Ghanaian cocoa derivatives to DMCC’s cocoa members, plugging Ghana’s semi-finished products directly into an established base of processors and traders.

For Ghana, the DMCC offers a gateway to route semi-finished cocoa into wider Middle Eastern and Asian markets, diversifying a customer base long concentrated among European grinders and strengthening CMC’s hand on origin premiums and differentials.

The statement said in Riyadh, further engagements produced commitments to import Ghanaian cocoa into Saudi Arabia in support of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 food-sustainability goals. Anchoring cocoa supply within Saudi Arabia’s food-security and economic-diversification agenda gives Ghana a strategically aligned, long-term buyer for its semi-finished products.

It noted that Saudi Arabia’s expanding confectionery and food-processing sectors make the Kingdom an increasingly significant destination for value-added cocoa, and a natural partner for a Ghana determined to capture more of the value chain.

The statement said officials were clear that the value-addition mandate does not hinge on building new factories.

It said it was designed to draw on installed processing capacity that already exists but currently runs underutilised.

It said guaranteed offtake for the resulting products was intended to bring that idle capacity into fuller use, increasing domestic conversion without the risk of producing volumes that have no assured market.

The statement said as the sole authorised exporter of Ghana’s cocoa, CMC’s role was shifting under Dr Dogbey’s leadership from marketing raw beans to building the commercial partnerships that ensure expanded grindings were matched by real demand.

It added that the Gulf commitments mark a significant step in that transition, and a signal of confidence in Ghana’s value-addition agenda from two of the world’s fastest-growing markets.