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Comment by tziki | Hacker News Reader

I wish them success, but my prediction is that in a few years they'll have no successful products and the world's chocolate makers have found new suppliers. You can't just make a decision to create successful products.

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Same. I am concerned they are overlooking how much marketing mind-share Switzerland has globally for chocolate. Ghana could get there but it will not happen overnight, more like a generation. Distribution will also take time.

Give that cocoa is their number 3 export - and I suspect most of that is in raw form - I really hope this doesn’t backfire. They need foreign currency.

A wiser path might be to build up global chocolate brands in parallel to raw exporting, sort of like we’re seeing China move up the value chain from value-added manufacturing to consumer brands.

They can process the beans and no one will notice. There are a lot of cocoa processors who produce bulk chocolate for other brands who melt that down to form their own products. Companies like Barry Callebaut or Valrhona primarily supply other companies with chocolate.

Sure but processing cocoa into chocolate at the scale quality of Callebaut and Valrhona is a massive undertaking of both production and skill. Callebaut and Valrhona produce chocolate for high end consumers such as pastry chefs in high end restaurants or artisanal bakeries. I'm not saying Ghana can't get there but it's going to a long time. Certainly long enough that it would be very much noticed.

I will notice - it's not easy obtaining Kosher certification in Ghana.

You're missing a step here. Yes brand recognition is powerful for consumers.

But I don't think ghana is going to be doing B2C stuff just yet. I'd assume that they are going to export cocoa products, as it would allow them to charge a much higher price, keeping more money in the country

You can incentivize the creation of certain types of businesses that aid in the economic development of the country though. Many countries, especially in Asia, have "decided" to become successful producers of industrial goods. For example, the automotive and electronics industry in South Korea were heavily supported by national policy, after the government decided that these areas were critical for the development of the country [0]. This actually worked incredibly well - many companies are still around today (e.g. Hyundai, Samsung, LG).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-Year_Plans_of_South_Korea

Inter African free trade is increasing sharply, so their primary market would likely be other African countries. Maybe that was their trumo card if worst comes to worst.

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