World: Cocoa cultivation is in crisis, the price of chocolate is rising unstoppably

A series of unfavorable harvests in West Africa has pushed the price of cocoa to unprecedented heights on the London and New York commodity exchanges. Ghana and Ivory Coast, which account for more than half of the global cocoa crop, have been hit by climate change and extreme weather conditions such as El Nino, forcing researchers to look for more weather-resistant cocoa varieties. Because of the poor harvest, chocolate manufacturers have warned of further price increases and reductions in the size of chocolates. A spokesperson for Nestlé told The Guardian that the price of cocoa has tripled in the past year. Various diseases and the underfunding of aging plantations also contribute to this. Most of the global cocoa supply is produced by smallholder farmers who, in most cases, cannot afford to buy new plants and fertilizers. Moreover, none of the rising consumer prices reach them. The cocoa-producing countries themselves hardly benefit from the record high cocoa prices, as the raw ...