Ghana has been named the host of the 2027 World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) Partnership Meeting — and in a landmark moment for the global cocoa industry, it will be the first time the prestigious annual forum has ever been held in a cocoa-producing country.
The announcement was made on Thursday, 21st May 2026, at an official launch ceremony in Accra, where Deputy Finance Minister Thomas Ampem Nyarko delivered the news to an audience of industry stakeholders, government officials, and cocoa sector representatives. The meeting is scheduled to run from 16th to 19th March 2027 at the Kempinski Gold Coast City Hotel in Accra.
For Deputy Minister Ampem Nyarko, the significance of Ghana’s selection extends far beyond the logistics of hosting a global forum. It is, in his view, a statement about where the future of cocoa must be shaped — and by whom.
“Today’s announcement is far bigger than hosting a conference. It is about Ghana and Africa’s continued leadership in the global cocoa sector. It is about resilience and sustainability. Above all, this is about the future of millions of farmers whose livelihoods depend on cocoa,” he declared.
He described Ghana’s selection as a milestone that reflects the country’s resilience and enduring influence in an industry it has helped define for generations. But he was equally candid about the structural challenges the sector faces, arguing that responsibility for securing cocoa’s future cannot rest on the shoulders of farmers alone.
“Governments alone cannot secure the future of cocoa. Resilience cannot be outsourced to farmers. Sustainability cannot be financed only at origin, and transformation cannot happen without shared responsibility across the entire value chain,” he stated, calling for deeper collaboration among governments, industry players, financial institutions, research organisations, civil society, and farming communities.
COCOBOD Chief Executive Dr. Randy Abbey used the occasion to press for something the cocoa sector has long promised but rarely delivered — concrete financial commitments that translate into fair and transparent pricing for farmers at origin.
“We need a fair, transparent pricing structure that reflects the true cost of sustainable production. We hope to make this partnership meeting the turning point, where we move from rhetoric to concrete financial commitments. We will urge our partners to ensure that the hands that harvest the cocoa are adequately rewarded,” Dr. Abbey said.
His remarks carried additional weight in light of a significant institutional milestone: COCOBOD will mark its 80th anniversary in 2027, and the organisation intends to collaborate with the WCF to incorporate celebratory events into the Partnership Meeting programme — adding a historic dimension to what is already a landmark occasion.
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World Cocoa Foundation Country Director for Ghana and Nigeria, Dr. Mawuli Coffie, underscored the deeper symbolism of the decision to hold the meeting on African soil for the first time. The move, he argued, is not merely logistical — it is philosophical.
Bringing the global forum to an origin country sends an unambiguous message: that the resilience of the cocoa industry must be built closest to the farms and communities that sustain it. Dr. Coffie also pointed to the long-term challenge of generational renewal, noting that the industry’s survival ultimately hinges on whether farmers — particularly young people — see cocoa as a viable and dignified future.
The theme selected for the 2027 edition, “From Origin to Global Resilience,” is pointedly apt. It speaks directly to the current pressures reshaping the global cocoa market, from climate volatility and price instability to youth migration away from farming and growing demands for supply chain transparency.
The 2027 meeting is expected to drive global dialogue on farmer well-being, advance climate-smart agricultural practices, and establish a framework for shared accountability across the cocoa value chain — with Ghana, the world’s second-largest cocoa producer, at the centre of it all.