But maybe the author and the editors have a good excuse. Their oversight might be due to mental confusion caused by climate change.
Posted on 03/20/2024 9:14:05 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Cocoa prices are at a 47-year high.
Your sweet tooth cravings are about to get more expensive.
In 2024, the price of cocoa hit an all-time high, reaching a staggering $5,874 on the New York commodities market, according to BBC. This, however, wasn't some one-off event, but rather, the culmination of a more than two-year uphill swing in prices that's already rocking the confectionary industry and is trickling down to consumers like you.
“Historic cocoa prices are expected to limit earnings growth this year,” Michele Buck, the president and CEO of the Hershey Company, shared during a Feb. 8 earnings call. This prediction would mark a continuing trend, as the company also posted a net income decrease of 11.5% for its fourth quarter of 2023. And Hershey is far from alone. As BBC reported, Cadbury also identified the rising costs of ingredients, including both cocoa and sugar, as one of its major challenges to come. And while inflation certainly plays its part, much of the increase in cost appears to be out of their control.
In the last cocoa season, the Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa reported, nearly 5 million tons of cocoa were produced around the world. However, the mass majority of it — 60% — was grown in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, followed by Ecuador with just 9%.
Former White House Chef Says Coffee Will Be 'Quite Scarce' in the Near Future Cocoa, like coffee, is a vulnerable plant to climate change. And, as the 2023 Fairtrade Foundation’s Endangered Aisle report states, cocoa growing regions like Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana may become too hot to grow the crop by 2050. (Some studies refute this claim, but do note that changes in rainfall may also negatively impact the crop in many of the same ways.) And, the current El Niño weather pattern is causing drier than normal weather in the region, which is drastically reducing yield. But the unfavorable weather isn't the only bad news.
On February 21, Agri-Way Partners reported that the Ghana Cocoa Board cut its 2023 to 2024 production forecast to a 14-year low due to that unfavorable weather coupled with crop disease, and smuggling. In fact, smuggling accounted for the loss of 150,000 tons of cocoa in Ghana in the last season, adding up to $600 million in lost revenue, according to the AFP. Things are getting so dire that Agri-Way noted "cocoa farmers are unlikely to fulfill some of their cocoa contracts for a second season." And, these unfulfilled contracts have led to several cocoa plants in the region halting processing as they can no longer afford to buy the raw beans, Reuters reported, creating the perfect storm.
The 25 Best Chocolate Gifts of 2024 For consumers, this likely means much higher prices to come. As Investopedia reported, retail chocolate prices in the U.S. increased 10% in 2023, at a rate about three times higher than consumer inflation. Already in 2023, Hershey’s raised its prices on its confectionery chocolate and other candy products in North America by 9%. But, according to Buck, the company is going to do everything it can before resorting to raising prices again, including cutting 5% of its global workforce.
"While historic cocoa prices are expected to limit earnings growth this year," Buck added on the call, "we believe our strong marketing plans, innovation and brand investments will drive top-line growth and meet consumers' evolving needs."
Chocolate prices rise to record levels.
Women & minorities hardest hit.
But maybe the author and the editors have a good excuse. Their oversight might be due to mental confusion caused by climate change.
In parts of the Philippines, local agricultural departments are distributing cacao and coffee seedlings in abundance. Of course, even with good weather and intelligent cultivation, it will take about five years to get the first products to market. In the meantime, farmers have to rely on their traditional low-return crops to survive.
IOW, ready to make it happen and setting us up with a *prediction*.
Well, the prediction about the costs going up is going to be true, but not for the reason they stated. Climate change is just the excuse.
“... Cocoa, like coffee, is a vulnerable plant to climate change.”
I never knew the temp in those places didn’t change a degree from daytime to the middle of the night, this global warming stuff must be really bad.
Aldi 85% Möser 5-bar pack is still $1.99, the pre-fakedemic price. I normally don’t eat Hershey’s, but our Costco had a box of 30 for 9.97, so I bought a couple. (With & without almonds, KitKat, Reese’s cups)
“the price of cocoa hit an all-time high, reaching a staggering $5,874 on the New York commodities market.”
In Costa Rica it cost $2 for a pound.
Chocolate has been ridiculous for years now.
I have a little side bulk vending thing I do with my young daughter to teach her some basic business and economics. We still run M&Ms but not much longer, either have to modify to .50 cent machines, or stop running them entirely. Price is just through the roof in the last few years... Not just Chocolate, everything is up ridiculously... but Chocolate is the worst of what I run to be sure... every few months it’s gone up another 5% or more.
Maybe it’s their insistence on sustainability and environmental justice that is reducing crop yields.
"smuggling...In fact, smuggling accounted for the loss of 150,000 tons of cocoa in Ghana...
"Things are getting so dire that Agri-Way noted "cocoa farmers are unlikely to fulfill some of their cocoa contracts for a second season."
"these unfulfilled contracts have led to several cocoa plants in the region halting processing as they can no longer afford to buy the raw beans"
It seems this article is all a lie. Crooked governments, corrupt companies; child labor, slave labor, criminal gangs, cocao smuggling.
It's a "Third World" rigged game. The farmers and the laborers don't make enough to live on, so why work.
and still somehow, "...the price of cocoa hit an all-time high..."
Where did all the money go?
African cocoa trading centre opens in central China - New Vision Official
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