As the crisis in West Africa deepens, the price of cocoa and chocolate continues to rise / Article

Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are the countries where nearly 70% of the world’s cocoa beans are grown. However, these countries have now been hit by a deep crisis and harvested the lowest harvests in the last 60 years.

Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire have been hit by both extreme rainfall and heat and drought over the past six months. This has also affected the condition of the roads, making it difficult to get the beans to the ports. And due to climate change, such phenomena will be more frequent, so it is estimated that by 2050, for example, in Côte d’Ivoire, the land suitable for growing beans will have shrunk by at least half.

Also, the situation has been worsened by a virus that first reduces the yield and eventually kills the trees where the beans grow. The crop is also damaged by black pod disease, or cacao tree fungus. Another problem is illegal gold mining in Ghana, which is expanding rapidly. As a result, more and more farmer-owned bean plantations are taken away and destroyed, but often the farmers themselves sell them to the gold miners.

The price of cocoa beans has increased by 186% in the last year, and most of the increase has been experienced this year – more than 130%.

A few days ago, the price of beans reached a record of 10,000 US dollars per metric ton. Considering that beans are used in making chocolate, the price of chocolate also rises. US shoppers, purchasing Easter chocolate products, have recognized that the price of chocolate has risen by 10%. The cocoa bean crisis in West Africa will already worry chocolate makers and sellers in Europe and North America this Easter.

“In the last year, we have raised the prices of chocolate, which is our main product, about four times. It was not big, they were about 10-15%. But our main supplier told us that already next month the price will increase by about 50%,” said one of the owners of a sweet shop in Toronto, Canada.

And in France, chocolate prices also worry buyers. “It’s true, for a few months now, my mom and I have been very reluctant to buy chocolate because it’s getting more and more expensive,” admitted one shopper.

It is true, as experts explained, given that chocolate producers buy cocoa several months in advance, the crisis in West Africa will hit consumers harder in the second half of this year or at the beginning of 2025.

“The price of chocolate in supermarkets is going to go up and it will go up quite significantly in the next six months. The cocoa market is facing a structural deficit.

The supply is far below the supply, and this year this difference will be the largest in the last 65 years,” Bloomberg analyst Javier Blass admitted.

Dark chocolate, which has the highest concentration of cocoa, could see the biggest jump. However, experts suggested that some chocolate manufacturers may choose other solutions instead of raising prices, for example, they may choose to produce smaller chocolate bars or reduce the cocoa content in chocolate.

The problems in Ghana and Ivory Coast are expected to have long-term effects that will also be felt in wealthy consumer markets and pave the way for cocoa bean producers in Latin America. Experts estimated that within a few years, Ghana will be overtaken by Ecuador, and Brazil and Peru will also pick up the pace. However, until future leaders pick up the pace and the biggest bean growers of the moment will have a hard time, end consumers will have to feel the consequences of the crisis.