Soaring cocoa prices: Blessing or curse for African farmers? | DW News

West Africa is king, when it comes to cocoa - the entire world has a love affair with chocolate, and without cocoa, chocolate is a no-go. African nations dominate the global cocoa trade, with Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria producing 70 percent of the cocoa beans consumed globally.
But that taste for chocolate is proving an expensive habit, and some analysts say the price of the sweet stuff may soon be twice what it was, because the cost of the raw material is only going up: The price of a ton of cocoa has increased almost fivefold since late 2023.
So how does that compare to other objects of desire, say microchips?
Since the start of the year, Cocoa prices have even outperformed shares in the world's leading computer chip giant, Nvidia.
So what's driving prices so high? Ghana, the world's second largest producer is facing a catastrophic harvest, in a deepening cocoa crisis. Producers have seen a wave of illegal gold mining wipe out their trees, with many deciding just to sell their plots.
Climate change is also doing its damage: Ghana has slashed its cocoa forecast this year because of hotter, drier weather.
Cameroon is Africa's third largest cocoa producer, and one farmer there said "cocoa season is a season of cash." Cocoa provides about 90% of the income for rural communities involved in its production. DW's Blaise Eyong spoke to a farmer in the village of Loum, in Cameroon's Littoral region who is turning his cash crop into consumer goods.
00:00 Intro and report
00:37 DW speaks with Kristy Leissle, researcher, author and consultant in the cocoa and chocolate industries
That's boosting one thing: the cocoa industry's equivalent of the covid pandemic, a viral disease that ruins yields before it kills the trees completely.
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[@urbansenicar81]

115 dollars for that bed? Start selling those instead of cocoa! Beautiful bed.

[@hinthegroove9740]

“Without cocoa, chocolate is a no-go” Loved it

[@RedBlackDish]

Maybe one day when cocoa prices do a 1000X this farmer will be able to afford a fence to prevent his cocoa from being stolen. So sad that selling all your produce exclusively to the wealthy countries doesn't translate to a decent life standard. How come that growing produce for the West in Africa only earns you a fraction of what growing produce for the West in the West earns you?

[@vineleak7676]

It does not, small scale farmers in the west have been going bankrupt for decades, farmers in Europe have some of the highest suicide rate of any professional group... Just like in Africa, in the west you need alot of land to make a decent living. Only very big farms make alot of money, the rest are in constant debt and barely surviving...

[@vineleak7676]

Also in Europe many farmers are operating at a loss and only surviving thanks to subsidies...

[@RedBlackDish]

@@vineleak7676 poor EU farmers! I hope one day they will be able to buy a bed for their wives too. I wish to all EU citizens to start living as people in Afrika. God Bless!

[@Viertelfranzose]

Chocolate was too cheap in the last years...just to make the Lindt Stocks expensive enough. I am glad that Ghana is producing now his own!!!!! Chocolate with the own Factory's and People's. This makes the way free to come out the slavery prices for the Farmers to a better live for People which deserve it....and not to make companies like Nestlé or Lindt more and more richer...on the costs of the Farmers and their Families. Thanks and greetings from Andreas in Alsace /France

[@aryaman05]

Why blame Nestle or Lindt when you have done Nothing to add value to coca beans all these decades ?

[@Viertelfranzose]

@@aryaman05 because I never bought Nestlé or Lindt Cacao or Chocolate. My only one Source of all my chocolate Stuff in all Styles is goodmoodfood in Germany...but there are of course other companies which are more in the interest of Fairtrade. What is your turn for a better Situation for the Cacao Farmers & Family 🤔Greetings from Andreas

[@veganpotterthevegan]

It's been too cheap for over a century

[@wisfina]

cocoa farmer earn less than 500 usd monthly per hectar recently compare to industries earn millions. what a joke. 😂

[@Viertelfranzose]

@@wisfina of course you have right in a specific way...but you cant compare apples with bones. You can have the best fruits...the best animals or best cacao....... If you have no one which would buy it!!! Things are never so easy....nut Ghana goes the right way.....and other countrys in Africa will follow that way to make them more independent

[@LearningSpanishwithDrL]

Great video!

[@irisachternaam]

As a non-native speaker, some of the people interviewed were a little difficult to understand and the automated subtitles don't help much either. Would be nice if someone at DW (assuming you have the staff (intern?/s) required and/or already have the written script for the interviews at hand) could write proper English (CC) subtitles for the videos, or at least for the videos where the automated subtitles don't work quite as well. It would also help for people with hearing impairments and those watching in noisy/crowded/public areas.

[@sealwheel]

i agree, i dont understand why DW hasnt added subtitles yet.

[@terra7066]

@@sealwheel I'm from Angola a Portuguese speaking country like Guinea-Bissau and on doc about the cashew nut production the farmer says in Portuguese: " During the Portuguese era we had bad years and good depending on the crops and buyers because we had several buyers and could negotiate the price with them but now we can only sell to the government , it is government that makes the price and all years are bad" The voice in English said : "During the Portuguese era we could only sell to the Portuguese , they made the price and we could hardly survive , now we sell to the government , some years are better and some years are worse but at least now every year we make enough to survive". DW has a narrative to follow and what the people they are interviewing are saying doesn't matter.

[@markrutlidge5427]

I'm so pleased for those farmers getting a good price and sorry for those farmers who have been affected by the gold diggers and the tree virus and global warming , but the reason for it is depressing.

[@TCN8202]

You will not be so pleased when you learn that the price increase is foisted onto you, the chocolate consuner, whether openly, on the price tag, or slyly, through poor quality for the same cost.

[@Debbie-henri]

Gold, you can only dig out once, but Cocoa trees are gold forever.

[@veganpotterthevegan]

​@@TCN8202 I've gladly only paid for ethically sourced chocolate for over 25yrs. Unfortunately, this won't really make all that chocolate fair trade chocolate. But plain and simple, chocolate should be expensive

[@markrutlidge5427]

@@TCN8202 true, but it's a luxury item.

[@matt0993]

baffling how food producing professions like farmers and fishermen are suffering in poverty while actors and athletes having the time of their lives when their act at some degree has no value added to most of people. Also baffling when cocoa prices are up all the time but farmer earnings are ridiculously low.

[@LittleJohnFish]

Jesus the price of cocoa has increased 5x so finally the farmers can afford a fricking bed for his family. Clearly chocolate needs to increase another 50x so you know maybe the guys doing all the work might be able to afford to live in something other than a tin shack...

[@Bennix]

I agree

[@harryjones5260]

tragic to see greed for gold harming cocoa production. rather chocolate than gold.

[@matst3469]

Chocolate tasted better 20 years ago.

[@johnnyappleseed79]

Really? You know and remember this difference? From what... a Hershey bar? Its the same cocoa bean from 20 years ago. I think you might be making that up to be dramatic. And there are different levels of how chocolate is created to make the final product. Darker, or concentrated. Those are quality standards. Basic candy will not taste any different unless the manufacturers ingredients changed.

[@Funkywallot]

Everybody´s favourites tasted better 20 years ago pal. Its because you lose taste buds when you get older and it doesent taste the same (Less)

[@mitkoogrozev]

@@Funkywallot We do indeed lose taste buds. But from what I remember , what people call ''flavor", which is your combined experience from smell and taste, smell is more important. People that lost their taste completely, like people's who's tongues have been cut out, still perceive that they have not lost much of their pleasure from food. But if you lose your smell, the flavor of food tends to be 'bland', people would say.

[@RonStochler-oz1qk]

I would disagree with that. Have you ever had chocolate from a genuine chocolatier?

[@LocalK5000]

If it tasted better before its probably because american companies mix their choclates with a lot of other products these days

[@davehowos3557]

Are you actually trying to argue that it might not be good for Africans if raw materials they are selling increase in value. Oh my.

[@Debbie-henri]

It's a sad fact - monoculture crops invite disaster, same happening to bananas, oranges and olives (and probably other fruits besides). These farmers should be taking on permaculture techniques to help them preserve the water better and give themselves alternative plants to draw income from if conditions are not right for the cocoa beans. But with other plants between cocoa trees, disrases have far less ability to sweep through a crop. I've seen this happen on my own tiny piece of land, where a disease has taken out some apple trees, but others were unaffected since there were plums, cherries, pears, blueberries, amelanchiers, barberries and hazelnut trees separating the two main groups. Dame goes for the cherries suffering prach leaf curl disease and blackcurrants with a rust on the leaves. Break up crops into sections, separate your cash crop with other completely different types of saleable fruits - you're going to sell something. It might not be as profitable as chocolate, but better than a disease ravaged or hard and nothing.

[@OsirusHandle]

the issue is more within the genetic pool of cocoa; monocultures worst issue it doesnt allow for natural selection. ofc unfortunately sometimes diseases are so lucky there arent any genes to avoid them, but then you can switch to a similar crop which perhaps you were already growing. this + hygiene is the best. only then should you resort to poisons. but... this is way more work. polyculture and landrace breeding is not easier or cheaper than monoculture. in uk we grow mostly wheat because you can just mow it all down, very low labour cost.

[@capincrunch1184]

Prices are actually dropping what are y’all talking about

[@RonStochler-oz1qk]

Africa and cocoa have always been synonymous. Yet Africans also have to deal with the hardships of new growing challenges. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges will be thieves and international competitors triggered by higher prices. Overall I hope the lives of Africans could improve at least a little from these higher prices.

[@walli6388]

A big problem with cocoa farmers is that their plots are just to small to really live from them.

[@oteyokwa2544]

Ha..Ghana only wants their fair share if profits from the gouging Swiss.

[@MrTuenchi]

Yes you tell them my cocoa brother 😂😂😂

[@juniourx2203]

It's good ,just look at oil .....

[@Daara92]

Blessing because need to move away from simply exporting raw resources to value addition and developing the value chains, thus creating jobs. To make this feasible investments is needed in human capital, energy and infrastructure

[@AJ-jx5gm]

Chocolate is nice to have but not necessary... there's plenty of sweets out there.

[@SMunro]

I know we could be growing forests of it in Australia.

[@kwamebushman606]

We in Western Africa need to BAN the export of cocoa and cocoa seeds immediately. Production and value addition should only happen in Africa then the products can be exported.

[@andraskleistenes8586]

Will Africa be richer from rising cocoa prices, or it is just harmful inflation?

[@julianshepherd2038]

If you lost your farm or it stopped raining where you are then no.

[@Thor.Jorgensen]

If your cash crop stops growing? Do you get money from that? A failed harvest is devastating for any economy.

[@OsirusHandle]

price goes up because the sales go down so theyre all collectively forced to charge more. they make same amount of money

[@Thor.Jorgensen]

@@OsirusHandle Sales aren't going down. The amount produced is going down due to failed crops. Demand stays the same.

[@OsirusHandle]

@@Thor.Jorgensen that implies there was excess waste that forced the price lower, no? maybe idk. either way the producer is forced to up the price against their wishes, which also suggests they want the price to be lower to sell more.

[@larrymiller672]

400 dollars for that bed!!! Can't break it and lasts forever till you die.Great craftsmanship 👌👍🙏🗽🇺🇲😘

[@fujin09]

İ heard 115

[@TrixiLovesYou]

If the farmers profit, it's fine by me. Not sure if cocoa is essential for pharmaceuticals, but I'm not going to starve just because the cocoa price went up.

[@toussantlbisso]

That"analyst" is likely well vested in "the industry"! Ghana being Paid by "the industry" to Only give 15% increase ! Nationalize Resources !

[@user-kg5ut5fc1f]

Enter Enter Enter Enter

[@OsirusHandle]

make a big union and charge higher

[@For3xampleJohn]

Increase prices by 100x People will still buy, Chocolate will become luxury again And people will live a healthier lofe by not being able to afford these sugar bombs

[@OsirusHandle]

the sugar is the cheap bit 😂

[@eddastrohmayer251]

Don't be cruel, please! 😂 I prefer dark chocolate, need no sugar...

[@For3xampleJohn]

@@OsirusHandle But it does get expensive in the long run. Guess it'll have to be back to basics. Reduce people then

[@OsirusHandle]

@@For3xampleJohn most european sugar comes from european sugar beets

[@user-kg5ut5fc1f]

1100

[@jdjdiiididjsjskks3723]

África🎊🇷🇺🎉😎

[@urbansenicar81]

Everybody wants to eat chocolate?

[@Thor.Jorgensen]

Is that something that hasn't been the case in the past 400 years, genius? Didn't anyone want to eat chocolate 10 years ago?

[@urbansenicar81]

@@Thor.Jorgensen Nah. We're much fatter now.

[@Thor.Jorgensen]

@@urbansenicar81 I don't think McDonalds or Domino's Pizza put much chocolate in their main courses. Correlation and causation.

[@urbansenicar81]

@@Thor.Jorgensen No. I mean we have a greater capacity now.

[@SIRLEE]

Come to Uganda 🇺🇬 for good quality cocoa

[@Flex385]

sell the news... done

[@user-kg5ut5fc1f]

0110

[@mutkaluikkunen3926]

They're not lining their pockets with my money, that's for sure. I got reflux issues and theobromine in chocolate makes it a lot worse so I've ditched chocolate a decade ago. I don't really miss it either.

[@NostalgicVideos254]

We already made memes with the previous upload🤣

[@Dongle3000ccm]

you and your mum?

[@mck5549]

What’s causing the disease? Sabotage ?

[@user-kg5ut5fc1f]

0000

[@tatangsutisna3786]

There is no chocolate grow in belgin or swiss, eat that now you begging for them

[@artmonkey4047]

When the government sets the price. It keeps farmers poor. All part of the plan I’m sure while middle men scoop up the profits.

[@Incorruptus1]

Keep your choco. Who cares.

[@kuchojoe500]

Criminal leadership of Ghanaian mafia by nana Addo. Ghana is going from hero of Africa to zero.

[@cheeseandpickles4506]

Without coco, chocolate is a no-go. Thumbs up.

[@williamlai29]

African farmers: Cocoa prices soaring, need more money... American buyer: Need more money? We print money!

[@matiasmazzo2938]

Chinese bot

[@julianshepherd2038]

Americans blame Joe Biden. They don't understand markets.

[@eddastrohmayer251]

​​@@matiasmazzo2938 Why? It's true.

[@user-kg5ut5fc1f]

Virus protection

[@pluribus_unum]

What's behind the rise in chocolate prices? We are. Human-induced climate change is impacting all agriculture significantly.

[@OsirusHandle]

no its mostly blight, same genus as potato blight a kind of fungus-relative. the gene pool people planted has no resistances

[@bneyens]

This host is the worst….

[@BaliAgha]

I hate chocolate, I could care less

[@bobbydennis8333]

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