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- Cocoa prices are skyrocketing due to limited production in west Africa
- Bad weather and illegal mining are exacerbating production challenges
- Cocoa futures have doubled since January, reaching $9,000/tonne
Cocoa prices have risen because most of the cocoa is grown in just a handful of countries in west Africa.
Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which account for more than 60% of global cocoa production, have been hit by bad weather related to the El Niño phenomenon, resulting in hundreds of thousands of hectares in lost production.
There are other confounding factors, such as illegal mining, which has overtaken many farms in Ghana and degraded the land, making it unsuitable for cocoa production.
Because cocoa bean production has dropped, the price of cocoa in global markets has increased dramatically. In New York, cocoa futures prices have doubled since January from just over $4,000 per tonne to more than $9,000/tonne this week. Cocoa futures are financial contracts that allow buyers and sellers to agree on the delivery of cocoa at a predetermined price.
— 4 April, 2024Subscribe to the weekly newsletter for more charts like this
