Two tables, one rank, two positions
Rank is the least useful figure in an import table. Sixth in chocolate, at 0.9 per cent of 1,288,315 dollars, describes a line that arrived and did not come back. Sixth in sugar confectionery, at 8.74 per cent of 1,423,533 dollars, describes a category stocked, reordered and understood by the people selling it.
Both tables are small and we will not dress them up. Small and legible is workable: the declaration shows which half of the shelf is already spoken for.
The chocolate column has an owner
France at 67.9 per cent, India 18.7, Togo 5.3. Two thirds of the chocolate value from one origin is not a price story, it is a dependency. While that line runs the shelf looks well served; when a vessel is late or a reference is discontinued upstream, everything behind the leader is small, and small suppliers cover a gap slowly.
A second origin here is taken for continuity rather than for a few per cent; the question worth putting to it is which lines it can actually produce.
The confectionery column has none
India 26.7, Togo 24.8, China 13.8 per cent: no origin holds a third, and a fragmented column behaves nothing like a concentrated one. Nobody’s listing is safe, buyers move on format and delivery, and a new line need not unseat an incumbent to be stocked.
Türkiye’s 8.74 per cent already sits inside that column. For dragées, Turkish delight and wrapped sweets the category needs no introduction to your customer, which leaves the questions narrow: format, case weight, and whether the reorder arrives when promised.
Why the neighbour appears in both columns
In chocolate, Togo takes 5.3 per cent and ranks third; in sugar confectionery it ranks second, on 24.8 per cent. An immediate neighbour supplying roughly a quarter of the sweets column, with no confectionery industry of any scale, reads to us as transit rather than manufacture: landed at one port, cleared, resold, moved overland. We say reads, because a declaration records origin, not history.
The point survives either reading: each intermediate holder adds a margin, a currency conversion and another account of when the lot actually left production.
What the table cannot tell you
This table comes from Benin’s own customs declaration, not from partner statistics read backwards, so it stands on firmer ground than the figures we publish for several neighbours. Firmer is not complete: a declared value carries no case weights, no unit prices, no sign of what sold through.
Search does not fill the gap. English returned 399 raw phrases, 7 above the threshold for about 250 a month, none of it buying language. French returned 820, 12 above threshold and about 310 a month, of which 140 is wholesale wording — though four of those five phrases are the same two words reordered (Benin).
What to send so the table becomes an offer
Send the lines you want priced; the format for each — bulk carton, retail box, kilo bag or jar, the jar line being a spread; an indicative quantity; your delivery point; and whether the pack stays in our standard pack or carries your brand, in which case nothing is printed without written approval. The offer comes back line by line: ingredients and allergens, net weight, case and pallet data, the minimum for that line, lead time and delivery term.
Terms quoted are FCA Gaziantep, FOB Mersin, CIF or DAP; Mersin is about three hours from our factory by road. Coated andchocolate lines go in a reefer through the warm months, Turkish delight, dragées and jellies go dry, and the two share one load (mixed container).
Turkish chocolate is at 0.9 per cent here. Is that a reason to stay away?
It is a reason to start with samples rather than with a standing order. The chocolate column is held at 67.9 per cent by one origin, so what a second source offers is cover for the month the first line is late, not a lower number. Place a few named lines beside what you already sell, quoted line by line, and let the second order follow the evidence.
How reliable are these import figures?
They are Benin’s own declared import values for 2024, not a mirror read from what other countries say they shipped, so they are firmer than the figures available for several markets nearby. Their limit is what any declaration leaves out: no case weights, no unit prices, and nothing about the pace of sell-through.
Can one container cover both tables at once?
Yes. The minimum is set per line rather than per container, so chocolate lines, dragées, Turkish delight and wrapped confectionery can travel in one load on one document set. Couverture and bulk chocolate by the kilo, raw nuts, dried fruit, cocoa, halva, tahini and baklava sit outside our range and are sourced on request; we confirm composition and format before quoting. Certificates are issued for our factory, and the offer states what applies on the day it is issued.
