Africa grows the world’s commodities. Others own the names consumers trust.

Walk into a supermarket in London, Paris, Dubai or Shanghai and Africa is everywhere.

The chocolate began life as cocoa harvested in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana or Nigeria. The coffee beans were grown in Ethiopia or Uganda. The tea leaves came from Kenya. The vanilla originated in Madagascar. The shea butter was processed from nuts gathered across northern Ghana and Nigeria. The cotton may have been grown in Benin or Mali.

Yet Africa is strangely absent from the shelves.

Consumers buy Lindt, Ferrero, Nespresso, Twinings, Lipton, Hershey’s, Godiva, Nestlé and Starbucks.

They rarely buy African brands.

The continent supplies many of the ingredients that feed the world’s largest consumer goods companies. It captures only a fraction of the value those ingredients eventually create.

That disconnect has become one of Africa’s most persistent economic paradoxes.

According to the United Nations Conference

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