Whose bookkeeping this actually is
A mirror table is somebody else’s accounting: every exporting country’s record of what it sent here, added up, standing in for a statement this market never filed. The arithmetic is sound; the coverage is not.
A partner that reports late, partially or not at all drops out of the total, and every share below it moves. Take what follows as a direction of travel, not a settled count. It is printed because it changes what can honestly be claimed.
The chocolate column, and a first place nobody is contesting
Chocolate, heading 1806, comes to 8,308,756 US dollars, and three origins carry most of it: Türkiye first at 33.81 per cent, Senegal at 23.7, India at 9.7.
Roughly a third of the chocolate landing here in 2024 was already Turkish, which closes the question a supplier page usually spends its space opening: the route runs, the file clears, the shelf takes the product. What a share cannot tell you is which lines, in which formats and case weights, under whose name, and how much of the deal existed on paper before the money moved.
The larger column is filled from furthest away
Sugar confectionery, heading 1704 — jellies, toffees, dragées and wrapped sweets — comes to 14,090,887 US dollars, the bigger of the pair, and its table looks nothing like the first. China stands at 47.9 per cent, Morocco at 16.3, India at 12.2, Türkiye seventh at 1.83.
Close to half that shelf is filled from the far side of the world. It is a full shelf, not an empty one — but a long chain serves it, with a consolidator, a warehouse and a margin at every joint. Seventh place is no verdict on the product; it is what a thin share looks like in a column one origin has taken half of.
The one name that appears in both columns
Set the two tables side by side and one origin shows up twice: India, at 9.7 per cent of the chocolate column and 12.2 of the sweet one. Nothing else in either top three repeats.
It is the signature of a shipper serving a market rather than a producer serving a buyer: one freight lane, whatever moves. The coastal neighbour at 23.7 per cent of the chocolate column tells the same story from closer by: cartons landed at a larger port, warehoused, sold on, carried along the coast. Neither is improper. Both are steps, and steps are priced into your carton.
What the table cannot see
A trade table records where a consignment was dispatched from. It does not record how many hands touched it on the way, and cannot tell a production base from a staging point where loads are assembled and sent on. The column reads identically either way.
Nor can it see format. The same dollar buys a bulk carton for a wholesaler or a printed retail box for a supermarket facing — different businesses, different margins. Ask any offer, this one included, which of the two it quotes.
From two columns to one list
Neither column argues for a standing monthly programme. Both argue for one planned load. A single container can mix chocolate, dragées, Turkish delight, wrapped confectionery and spreads in jars from our own factory on one order and one document set (mixed container).
Send the references you want priced, the format and case weight for each, an indicative quantity and the handover point. The offer comes back line by line: ingredients and allergens, net weight, case and pallet figures, lead time and delivery term — FCA Gaziantep, FOB Mersin, CIF or DAP, Mersin being about three hours from our factory by road (
How firm are the figures on this page?
They are mirror figures for 2024 and they are labelled as such, because this market does not report its own imports. The 8,308,756 US dollars of chocolate and the 14,090,887 of sugar confectionery are what the rest of the world recorded as shipments towards Guinea, added together, so a partner reporting late or partially moves every share in the table. Read the ranking as a direction rather than a settled total.
Türkiye already fills a third of the chocolate column. What is left to decide?
Not the origin, and not whether the product clears or sells — at 33.81 per cent of the 2024 column that is behind us, and we are not going to build a market-share pitch on top of it. The decisions that remain are smaller, and they sit inside each order: the specification of the line itself, its format and case weight, whose name goes on the wrapper, the count of hands standing between the factory floor and your warehouse, and what part of the arrangement exists on paper before production starts. Certificates are issued for our factory; we name the certifying body and send copies on request.
Can you supply the sweet column the way it arrives today?
Partly, and it is better to be exact than eager. Dragées and sugared almonds, coated nuts, Turkish delight, jellies and wrapped confectionery are in the range and are quoted per line with format and case weight stated. Couverture, bulk chocolate by the kilo, raw nuts, dried fruit, cocoa, halva, tahini and baklava sit outside it: sourced on request, and we confirm composition and format beforequoting. A coating made with vegetable fat is named as compound on the pack, the technical data sheet and the price list, never as chocolate — European labelling rules do not allow that word on such a pack — and the jar line is a spread.
