A cocoa bean: The price of the raw material has more than tripled in the last six months

Photo: LUC GNAGO/ REUTERS

Due to, among other things, climate-related extreme weather events, cocoa bean growing countries such as Ghana and Ivory Coast are recording significantly lower yields. Prices for the raw material have risen sharply in recent years. Chocolate manufacturers such as Mondelez, Hershey and Lindt & Sprüngli are also noticing this.

Ghana now wants to pay farmers higher purchase prices - and thus also curb the smuggling of the raw material. The fixed farm gate price for growers should be increased by up to 50 percent, said a spokesman for the Ghanaian cocoa marketing authority Cocobod, according to the Reuters news agency. Bloomberg had previously reported on discussions between the authority and the government.

The price of cocoa beans has recently tripled

The price of cocoa beans has more than tripled in the last six months - to just under 8,000 British pounds (around 9,300 euros) per ton. However, the official farm-gate price that farmers can charge for their beans has not yet reflected the price increase. Ghana's state-guaranteed cocoa price is currently just under 21,000 cedi (around 1,500 euros) per ton. With the increases announced by Cocobod, farmers would also have a greater share of the profits from marketing.

Cocoa producers in Ghana have faced numerous problems over the past four years. In the 2023/24 season, production is expected to be almost 40 percent below target due to strong winds, little rain, smuggling and plant diseases. According to authorities, pests also led to the destruction of cocoa plantations on around 590,000 hectares of arable land between 2018 and February 2024.

The increasingly scarce goods are a problem for chocolate producers. According to one dealer, those manufacturers who did not keep sufficient inventory now have to stock up at any price in order to avoid expensive production stops.

Due to the price increase on the world market, more and more cocoa is being smuggled. According to Cocobod, around 150,000 tons of cocoa beans were lost to the market due to smuggling in the 2022/23 season. The association expects an even larger volume this season, as increased cocoa prices create an even greater incentive for smuggling.

spr/Reuters