Global chocolate prices to soar due to acute cocoa shortage

Chocolate makers have already raised prices for consumers after three years of poor cocoa harvests, and a fourth such year is expected in the two countries that produce nearly 60 percent of the world's cocoa. Cocoa prices have more than doubled over the past year, reaching numerous all-time highs. One of the agency's two sources said several more large state-owned factories in Ivory Coast, which produces nearly half the world's cocoa, could close soon. Rising prices have undermined the long-established mechanism of global cocoa trade, through which farmers sell beans to local dealers, who in turn sell them to processors or global traders. These traders then sell the beans or cocoa products - butter, powder and cocoa liquor - to global chocolate giants such as Nestle or Hershey's. In normal times, the market is tightly regulated, with traders and processors purchasing beans from local dealers a year in advance at pre-agreed prices. Local regulators then set lower selling prices ...