Francis Kokoroko/Reuters
The price of cocoa beans set a new record this week with over 10,000 dollars per tonne. That means a crisis for farmers – and more expensive chocolate.
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Less than 10 minutes ago
When Janet Gyamfi (52) looks out over the stripped landscape outside the farm, she cries.
Last year there were 6,000 cocoa trees here. Now there are less than twelve left.
– This farm is the only way I can survive, says Gyamfi. Photo: Francis Kokoroko / Reuters
The news agency Reuters has visited Gyami in Ghana, which together accounts for over 60 percent of global cocoa production.
Illegal gold mining, climate change and rapidly spreading disease have led to a crisis for crops.
And it shows in the price.
Just since the start of the year, cocoa prices have risen 135 percent, according to the AFP news agency.
Young boys dig for gold on a cocoa plantation. Photo: Francis Kokoroko / Reuters
Major chocolate manufacturers have already announced price increases this year and next year.
The head of communications at Mondelez Norway, which produces Freia products, tells VG that they are following the situation closely.
A worker transports a sack of dried cocoa beans. Photo: Francis Kokoroko / Reuters / NTB
The chocolate manufacturer says they are experiencing significantly higher costs in the supply chain.
– Key ingredients such as cocoa and sugar reach record high prices, while other input costs such as energy, packaging and transport remain relatively high, says communications manager Øyvind Olufsen.
The products are therefore much more expensive to produce than before, Olufsen explains.
Ghana has 1.38 million hectares of land where they grow cocoa beans. Photo: Francis Kokoroko / Reuters / NTB
Chocolate expert Svein-Magnus Sørensen says the increased prices for cocoa beans will primarily affect chocolate, which is already cheap.
– The quality chocolate is affected to a lesser extent, he says to VG.
The reason is that these quality producers often make direct deals at already agreed prices – and much higher than the market price.
Mahama Ousmanu (58) lives in Kwabeng, Eastern Ghana. Photo: Francis Kokoroko/Reuters/NTB
Sørensen emphasizes that there is usually not that much actual chocolate in the chocolate you buy in the store.
– It is a minimal part of the product itself. In Japp and Toppris, for example, there is a thin layer of chocolate around. Here, the producers will probably be creative and try to fill the chocolates with all sorts of other things.
This drone image shows the destruction on a cocoa plantation in Western Ghana. Photo: Francis Kokoroko / Reuters
Cocoa production is also negatively affected by poor working conditions and severe price pressure on cocoa farmers from Western wholesalers.
This has led to many farmers choosing to switch to other production.
Sørensen says that the stock market price has no relation to the price a poor cocoa farmer gets when he or she sells it.
– So in addition to the fact that they are now struggling with poor crops, they will not earn anything more than before.
For Janet Gyamfi in Ghana, it is a crisis.
– I am traumatized, she tells Reuters.
Cocoa farmers Agartha Amoasi and Janet Gyamfi see the latter’s plantation destroyed. Photo: Francis Kokoroko / Reuters / NTBPublished:
Published: 29.03.24 at 00:42
2024-03-28 23:43:10
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