Farmers, even more than consumers, need a stable and predictable global food system The small indulgence of chocolate is becoming a more costly one. for cocoa beans recently hit : roughly four times last years price. Many think they will go higher. That means smaller or more expensive bars and reformulated recipes for many consumers, and may put out of business small specialist producers. Yet it is bringing little reward to struggling growers. The immediate culprit is a bad harvest in west Africa which produces 70% of the worlds beans reflecting El Nio-linked weather patterns and disease. Major processing plants in Ghana and Ivory Coast, the main growers, have because they cannot afford the beans. But underlying the crisis are longer-term issues including the climate crisis and the inability of farmers to invest in production due to their low incomes. Big companies have long claimed that it simply wasnt viable to pay more for beans. Now they are suddenly finding that they can, in fact, manage to do so when the market demands it. Cocoa amounts for only around a tenth of the costs of producing a bar.
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