Whose bookkeeping this actually is
A mirror table is somebody else’s accounting borrowed to describe yours: each exporting country’s record of what it sent here, added up, standing in for a statement nobody published. The arithmetic is sound; the coverage is not. A partner that reports late, partially or not at all simply drops out, and every share in the table moves when it does.
So take what follows as a direction of travel, not a settled total. We publish it because it changes what this page can honestly claim, not because it is exact.
The chocolate column, and the bean behind it
Chocolate comes to 8,665,399 US dollars, and three origins carry most of it: Côte d’Ivoire at roughly 32.3 per cent, Morocco at roughly 16.6, Senegal at roughly 13.8. Türkiye sits sixth, at roughly 6.32 per cent.
The largest of those names grows cocoa, which is worth separating from what crosses your border. A bean is a crop of the forest belt to the south; a tempered, moulded, wrapped and printed bar is a manufactured good made somewhere else. Being close to the first industry does not put the second on your shelf.
The sweet column, filled by different countries
Sugar confectionery sits close behind at 7,171,892 US dollars, yet almost nothing about the origins repeats: Togo at roughly 36.9 per cent, Morocco again at roughly 16.6, India at roughly 15.5. Türkiye is sixth here too, at roughly 4.05 per cent.
One name appears in both columns, at the same share in each. Everything else differs. A buyer filling both shelves is running two sourcing problems rather than one, with two sets of lead times, two document sets and two sets of weeks when a line runs short.
What a landlocked table cannot separate
Nothing in either column arrived directly, because there is no coastline: a container is discharged at a port in a neighbouring country and finishes overland, under a transit procedure, before it is entered for home use here.
That bends the reading. The country recording an export is the one whose paperwork the goods left on, not always the one they were made in; and a consignment cleared into a coastal neighbour first can be booked against that neighbour rather than the inland market it was headed for. We cannot separate the two from outside, and we do not claim to.
The only conclusion the table supports
The conclusion is narrow, and it is checkable. A carton landed, cleared, warehoused and re-sold on the coast before it travels inland has been bought and sold more than once, and each of those hands is priced into it. A container consolidated at origin and consigned to you removes at least one — a statement about the chain, not about anybody’s margin.
It also lets both columns move together. Turkish delight, dragées, jellies and wrapped confectionery travel dry; chocolate and chocolate-coated lines are quoted in a reefer for the sea leg through the warm months. One container can carry both.
Turning a column into an order
One container tests both columns at once (mixed container). Send the references you want priced, the format and case weight for each, an indicative quantity, the port you normally use and the town the goods finally reach.
The offer comes back line by line: ingredients and allergens, net weight, case and pallet data, lead time and delivery term. Terms are FCA Gaziantep, FOB Mersin, CIF or DAP; Mersin is about three hours from our factory by road (how we work). Couverture, bulk chocolate by the kilo, cocoa, raw nuts, dried fruit, halva, tahini and baklava sit outside the range: sourced on request, with composition and format confirmed before quoting.
How firm are the figures on this page?
They are mirror figures for 2024 and we label them as such, because Mali does not report its own imports. The 8,665,399 US dollars of chocolate and the 7,171,892 of sugar confectionery are what the rest of the world recorded as shipments here, so a partner reporting late or partially moves every share in the table. With no coastline, a consignment entered in a coastal neighbour first can also be credited to it rather than here. Read the ranking as a direction, not a settled total.
Both columns are already supplied, mostly from the region. What does a container from Gaziantep change?
It changes how many hands stand between the producer and your warehouse, and how much of the deal exists on paper. One container can carry chocolate, dragées, Turkish delight, wrapped confectionery and spreads in jars from our own factory on one order and one document set, with price, case weight, lead time anddelivery term stated per line. It is a second source for the weeks when the first one is short, which is a different proposition from replacing it.
With no coastline, how does the container actually reach us?
In two legs. A sea leg from Mersin, about three hours by road from our factory, to a port on the coast;then a road leg inland across a border. The delivery term decides where our part stops: FCA Gaziantep, FOB Mersin, CIF or DAP. The port of discharge, the assumed transit route and the document set are named in the offer, and your clearing agent confirms what applies on the day.
