Chocolate Drought?

An international chocolate drought? It may be coming within two years unless the political violence comes to an end soon.

Forty percent of the world’s chocolate is produced in the Ivory Coast. Because of rebels and violence, chocolate farmers are fleeing the farmlands, often leaving the country.  

Prices have jumped 10% in the last month, and chocolate makers of the products we love are facing the highest prices in thirty years. The president of that country, last week, had reduced exports. It turns out that the political component of this has its roots in their election last November. Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara won the election, and is the one who gave the order to reduce exports.

Laurent Gbagbo is the incumbent and is saying Ouattara has no authority to restrict exports. Gbagbo refuses to cede power, even though Ouattara is the UN certified winner. Apparently all this chocolate mess has to do with the combating presidents. It turns out too that they had an extremely productive oil industry that has suffered a setback for the same kind of political infighting. Oil production is at rock bottom now.

Then there’s smuggling from Ghana, the second largest cocoa producer. Ghana’s government was suppressing prices, so Ghana farmers were smuggling into Ivory Coast for higher prices. Ghana has allowed prices to increase, causing smuggling to decrease. At least that part of the story is okay.

Then there’s the Fair Trade issue. (Fair Trade is supposed to get a higher percentage of money to the actual producers of a product.) These farmers have to be Fair Trade certified, which takes three years. What’s being said is even when all the political mess is worked out it’ll take three years to get production back to where it was. Nowhere have I found why the already certified cocoa farmers just couldn’t return. (This last nearly launched me again on the incompetency of the Jurassic Press; just plain ol’ bad journalism and writing.) I’m a Fair Trade buyer whenever it’s available at the retail level, but this brings even that into question.

There there’s Cahill, the giant agribusiness, that isn’t purchasing because there’s a ban as a result of the legitimate government not being in power or something.

I started this post just as a heads up that our retail chocolate prices may be going up substantially. What I found after having to read several badly written articles, is a story of political belligerence, guerrilla warfare, smuggling, and price controls; none of which has had a good outcome, ever. Ivory Coast did the same thing to their oil business, so apparently didn’t learn anything from that.

Just think if farmers were just allowed to farm and sell, and oil companies just drill and produce, how much better off everyone would be.