Which of the following countries are well known as the two largest cocoa producers in the world?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (c) Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana
Cocoa needs a hot, wet equatorial climate, and West Africa's Gulf of Guinea coast supplies most of the world's crop. Côte d'Ivoire is the largest producer and Ghana the second; the other pairs lie in drier parts of Africa and are not significant cocoa growers.
- ✓ (c) Côte d'Ivoire is the world's largest cocoa producer, and it and Ghana are the largest cocoa exporters; with Cameroon they account for nearly two-thirds of global cocoa exports.
- ✗ (a) Algeria and Morocco lie in North Africa's dry belt; neither is among the handful of countries that grow almost all of the world's cocoa.
- ✗ (d) Neither Madagascar nor Mozambique is among the nine countries that the International Cocoa Organization says produce over 93% of world cocoa.
Remember · Cocoa belt = West Africa's Gulf of Guinea coast. Côte d'Ivoire is No. 1, Ghana No. 2; together they dominate world cocoa supply.
Sources
- World Bank blog: How can Côte d'Ivoire escape the curse of cocoa? ↗ “This is why some people speak of the curse of “brown gold” in this country, which is the world’s largest cocoa producer.”
- FAO Investment Centre: Sustainable Cocoa Initiative ↗ “Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are the world’s largest exporters of cocoa. Together with Cameroon, their combined exports account for nearly two-thirds of global exports”
- International Cocoa Organization (ICCO): FAQ ↗ · reference work “For the 2019/20 cocoa year, the ICCO Secretariat forecast indicates that 9 countries (Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Ecuador, Cameroon, Nigeria, Indonesia, Brazil, Peru and the Dominican Republic) produce altogether over 93% of the world’s cocoa output.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·