Cocoa’s Bittersweet Surge

By: Editors

Speculators and supply shocks have sent cocoa prices through the roof — but West African farmers aren’t getting to taste the profits.

For the past decade, cocoa has been a sleepy market, with prices stable at around $2,500 per metric ton; last year, it suddenly woke up. The chaos started when poor rainfall and a crop disease ruined the harvest in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the world’s two largest cocoa producers. That was enough to push prices […]

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Small

For the past decade, cocoa has been a sleepy market, with prices stable at around $2,500 per metric ton; last year, it suddenly woke up. The chaos started when poor rainfall and a crop disease ruined the harvest in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the world’s two largest cocoa producers. That was enough to push prices […]

Medium

For the past decade, cocoa has been a sleepy market, with prices stable at around $2,500 per metric ton; last year, it suddenly woke up. The chaos started when poor rainfall and a crop disease ruined the harvest in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the world’s two largest cocoa producers. That was enough to push prices […]

Large

For the past decade, cocoa has been a sleepy market, with prices stable at around $2,500 per metric ton; last year, it suddenly woke up. The chaos started when poor rainfall and a crop disease ruined the harvest in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the world’s two largest cocoa producers. That was enough to push prices […]

Jacobin