“Dubai Multi Commodities” launches a global center for cocoa trade

The Dubai Multi Commodities Center announced its intention to launch the “Cocoa Centre,” a new trade platform that aims to build an integrated system covering cocoa trade, processing, and innovation in its sector, thus enhancing Dubai’s position as a global center for trade in agricultural commodities.

The launch of the center comes within the expansion plan in the agricultural and food commodities sector, benefiting from the cluster model adopted by the center in coffee and tea, as it currently includes 88 companies operating in the cocoa trade and the chocolate and sweets industry. The new center will combine these activities within a unified platform that covers the value chain from supply and processing to distribution and financing.

A statement issued yesterday stated that the project is being implemented in partnership with the “Combi Cocoa” company and the “Rebizi” group, as the group will lead the development work, while the parties will cooperate to study the establishment of an integrated infrastructure for storing, trading and converting cocoa into semi-processed products, in a way that enhances the efficiency of global supply chains.

The first CEO and CEO of the Dubai Multi Commodities Center, Ahmed bin Sulayem, said: “Today’s cocoa trade is no longer limited to production alone, but rather is linked to how value is built, financed and distributed throughout the various episodes of the supply chain.”

He added, “Through the Dubai Multi Commodities Center’s Cocoa Center, the Center is working to establish a platform that responds to the requirements of this new reality. By bringing together producers, traders, manufacturers and capital under the roof of one platform, we create the appropriate environment to achieve more added value near the source of production, while enhancing Dubai’s role as a global destination for trade in agricultural commodities.”

Bin Sulayem pointed out that “this project represents a natural extension of the cluster model adopted by the Centre, and a new step towards consolidating Dubai’s position at the heart of the movement of food and commodity flows at the global level.”

For his part, the founder and CEO of Combi Cocoa, Kwadwo Boachi-Adjei, said, “The mission of Combi Cocoa since its founding has been to build transparent and fair supply chains that connect farmers directly to global markets,” expressing their pride in being a strategic partner of the Dubai Multi Commodities Center, supporting the development of infrastructure that benefits farmers, and at the same time provides high-quality, traceable cocoa to international markets.

In turn, the founder of the Ribisi Group, Mauro Ribisi, said: “The global cocoa market is witnessing rapid development, and this initiative embodies a forward-looking approach in developing the infrastructure for commodity trade. By achieving integration between supply, logistics, trading and processing operations between different continents, the Cocoa Center has the potential to become a new reference standard and a platform to stimulate the growth of this sector.”

Globally, the value of the cocoa market reached about $16.6 billion in 2025, and it is expected to reach $26.2 billion by 2035, while the luxury chocolate market is expected to grow from $31.9 billion in 2024 to $40.6 billion by 2030.