Founded in 2011 by former Wall Street banker Edmund Poku, Ghanaian company Niche Cocoa produces cocoa products and chocolate for export and the local market. Niche Cocoa started as a small enterprise, and today the company is the largest fully integrated cocoa processor in Ghana.
Niche Cocoa founder Edmund Poku started working as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs after receiving an MBA degree. Shortly after, one of the Poku professors called him, urging him to continue working on his MBA thesis and establish a private cocoa processing company in Ghana. The stress of working on Wall Street quickly forced Poka to start rethinking his original business idea. Then he packed up and moved to Accra to open his cocoa business.
Niche Cocoa produces cocoa products and confectionery products for supplies to the global chocolate, ice cream and bakery industry. Semi-finished products include natural and deodorized cocoa butter, specialized cocoa mass, as well as natural and alkaline cocoa powder. At the confectionery Niche Cocoa is also a producer of refined chocolate, chocolate drinks and spreads.
The cocoa industry has long been the backbone of Ghana’s economy. It is currently the world’s second largest producer of cocoa beans after Ivory Coast.
When Niche Cocoa entered the cocoa processing market as a private domestic company, the industry was still in its infancy, and only the government and several multinational corporations processed cocoa locally. Ghana at that time processed only about 15% of the cocoa harvested in the country, and the rest was exported. The growth of niche cocoa was partly the result of its ability to successfully supply its cocoa products to several countries. He has done the work required to obtain various certifications, including Halal, Kosher, Fair Trade, Organic, FDA, Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) and UTZ.
Since 2017, the cocoa niche has expanded further, gaining partial ownership of one of the largest smelters in Germany, which allowed the brand to gain access to European chocolate producers for end consumers.
While this model has mostly served niche cocoa well, barriers to entry for other local private processors remain high. Attracting money to a multinational industry, whether through private investment or banks, is often prohibitively expensive and difficult for those who do not have good connections or do not have a high level of capital. Obtaining permission to buy cocoa beans from the government is also difficult and expensive.
Source: https://helloafrica.ru/ot-uoll-strit-do-proizvodstva-shokolada-v-gane/
