Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, has acquired Nyonkopa Cocoa Buying Company Limited in Ghana.

Nyonkopa is among the top ten private Licensed Buying Companies in Ghana authorized by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to buy cocoa from farmers and to sell it to the Cocoa Marketing Company of the COCOBOD. The COCOBOD oversees the cocoa sector in Ghana, including quality control, sales and marketing.

Nyonkopa Cocoa was founded in 2012 and became operational in the 2013/14 crop season. The company has a strong buying network, has about 100 employees and 600 purchasing clerks and is buying cocoa from over 10,000 cocoa farmers spread across 34 districts in Ghana’s main cocoa regions.

Nyonkopa will be integrated into the Biolands Group, Barry Callebaut’s direct sourcing organization, so far present in Côte d’Ivoire and Tanzania.

Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO of Barry Callebaut, said: “Nyonkopa will give us access to thousands of Ghanaian farmers at farm level and enable us to source directly from them and provide them with farm services. This is fully in line with our strategy to make cocoa farming more sustainable and attractive to farmers and our approach to focus on farmer productivity and community development.”

With a view to customer demand, CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique continued: “In addition, this step will enable us to satisfy the growing need of our customers for sustainable and traceable cocoa specifically from Ghana so they can meet the sustainability commitments they have made towards their consumers. The acquisition of Nyonkopa will furthermore support Barry Callebaut and our customers commitment to CocoaAction in Ghana.”