During the recent WEDC trade mission to Africa, state officials sought to deepen the economic ties between Ghana’s Niche Cocoa and Wisconsin.
The trade mission took place July 20-25, featuring diplomatic meetings with local officials in both Ghana and South Africa as well as visits with African businesses and institutions and stops at distribution operations run by major Wisconsin companies such as Trek Bicycle Corp., Harley-Davidson and Rockwell Automation.
In an interview yesterday, WEDC Secretary and CEO John Miller said he and Gov. Tony Evers met with investors and other supporters of Niche Cocoa, calling it the biggest business connection of the trip with an African company that has operations in Wisconsin.
Niche Cocoa is currently building a cocoa processing plant in Franklin, which it selected after the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. courted the business following a site search that began in 2022.
After first joining a dinner with representatives of the company, Miller and Evers spent the following day touring its factory in Ghana and learning about the company’s operations there. While work on the Franklin project is underway, Miller added Niche Cocoa is also looking to get more involved in providing chocolate milk for schools in Ghana.
“The one thing they don’t have in Ghana is ready milk, so they’re interested in buying powdered milk,” Miller told WisBusiness. “We actually brought along officials from the U.S. Dairy Export Council to help them figure out ways to buy not only U.S.-made but Wisconsin-made powdered milk.”
Up until now, Niche Cocoa has been buying powdered milk from the Netherlands, Miller said.
“We’re working on not only helping them bring their facility and expand their facility into Wisconsin, but also helping them with bringing some Wisconsin products over to help them and their manufacturing process in Ghana,” he said.
Miller said the trip marked the first time a Wisconsin governor has gone to Africa on official business, noting there largely hasn’t been “a lot of outflux of financial benefit coming into the U.S.” from the continent. He says Niche Cocoa’s investment in Wisconsin bucks the trend, and WEDC has previously said the project represents the largest food and beverage investment by an African company in U.S. history.
“So we really wanted to celebrate it,” he said, adding “it was definitely the biggest part of the trip.”
Miller said no Wisconsin-based businesses joined this trade venture, but stressed that Africa and South Africa in particular present great opportunities for Wisconsin companies looking to export and establish a foothold elsewhere. He noted the continent’s relatively young population as a strength for its future economy.
“There are billions of consumers in these countries and a lot of things going on, and one of the things that we can do, especially with our products, is help them prosper,” he said. “I think it deserves our attention, to make sure we pay attention to every continent and every potential avenue to both benefit the economy in Wisconsin, and their economies locally.”
