Koa Inaugurates Africa’s Largest Cocoa Fruit Factory in Ghana

The Ghanaian-Swiss start-up Koa inaugurated its second cocoa fruit factory in Ghana. The new facility will allow Koa to scale its production capabilities tenfold and thereby allow the company to cooperate with an additional 10,000 cocoa smallholders in Ghana.

The independent Ghanaian-Swiss company is the first company in West Africa to have unlocked a new value chain around the overlooked cocoa pulp. Working closely with cocoa smallholders, Koa utilizes more parts of the cocoa fruit and increases cocoa farmers’ income while, at the same time, creating innovative and sustainable ingredients for chocolate, confectionery, ice cream, and beverages.

Since its foundation in 2017, Koa has upcycled 800 tonnes of cocoa fruit that was, until that day, overlooked in the cocoa industry. 2,200 cocoa farmers benefitted within the first five years, earning a total of USD300,000. To scale its business and meet the demand for cocoa fruit products, the company built a second factory, located in Akim Achiase in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

Daniel Otu, Production & Operations Director at Koa, explained that “the new factory will allow the company to grow in line with the demand from our customers. The factory will generate 250 new jobs in rural Ghana and we will extend our cocoa fruit upcycling to an additional 10,000 cocoa farmers.”