Who profits from the soaring price of cocoa globally?

Published 2024년 6월 23일

Tridge summary

Cocoa prices have surged due to a poor harvest in West Africa, causing mixed reactions across the industry. While speculators and chocolatiers profit, small-scale producers in Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world's largest cocoa producers, have not yet seen significant benefits due to the prices being set before the harvest. Only an increase in the price of the intermediate crop in April provided some relief. In countries with less regulation, growers have been able to sell at higher prices, but there are risks of an oversupply in the future, which could crash prices. The erratic market has also led to financial challenges for major processors and chocolate makers, who have had to buy cocoa at high prices and face the possibility of passing on costs to consumers.

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Original content

Paris: Though cocoa prices on the financial markets have soared, the rise is benefiting cocoa growers, bean processors, speculators and chocolatiers in unequal measure. In March, prices rocketed to more than $10,000 a tonne in New York after a poor harvest in West Africa due to a combination of bad weather conditions and disease devastating ageing plantations. Get exclusive content with Gulf News WhatsApp channel They have since fallen back from the peak, yet are still three times higher than last year. In Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world's largest cocoa producers, prices are set by the authorities in October on the basis of the previous months. But by that point the harvests "have already been largely pre-sold", said Tancrede Voituriez of the French agricultural research and cooperation organisation CIRAD. This reduces the impact of cocoa price fluctuations - whether upwards and downwards. As a result, small-scale producers, who generally earn barely enough to live on, did not ...

Source: Gulfnews