Please try using other words for your search or explore other sections of the website for relevant information Our team is working diligently to resolve the issue Thank you for your patience and understanding July ICE NY cocoa (CCN25) today is down -406 (-4.57%), and July ICE London cocoa #7 (CAN25) is not trading today with markets in the UK closed for the May Day holiday Cocoa prices today are sharply lower on signs that improved weather conditions in West Africa are benefitting the cocoa crops in the Ivory Coast and Ghana Cocoa farmers in the Ivory Coast reported and the cherelles are becoming pods." Ghana farmers said recent rains have improved the conditions of their crops cocoa prices fell to 2-week lows on demand concerns reported that Q1 sales fell -14% and said it anticipates $15-$20 million of tariff costs in Q2 which will boost chocolate prices and further weigh on consumer demand Mondelez International reported weaker-than-expected Q1 sales and said consumers are cutting back on snack purchases due to economic uncertainty and high chocolate prices A rebound in current cocoa inventories is bearish for prices Since falling to a 21-year low of 1,263,493 bags on January 24 ICE-monitored cocoa inventories held in US ports have rebounded and climbed to a 7-month high last Friday of 2,076,132 bags Cocoa prices are also seeing negative carryover from Bloomberg's report last Monday that showed Nigerian Mar cocoa exports rose +24% y/y to 27,564 MT Nigeria is the world's fifth-largest cocoa producer Quality concerns over the Ivory Coast mid-crop may limit the downside in cocoa prices in the near term Cocoa processors are complaining about the crop's quality and have rejected truckloads of Ivory Coast cocoa beans Processors said about 5% to 6% of the mid-crop cocoa in each truckload is poor quality NY cocoa posted a 2-1/2 month high on supply concerns as the pace of Ivory Coast cocoa exports has slowed Today's government data showed that Ivory Coast farmers shipped 1.53 MMT of cocoa to ports this marketing year from October 1 to May 3 up +11.7% from last year but down from the much larger +35% increase seen in December Cocoa prices also have a positive carryover from recent news that showed better-than-expected global cocoa demand Q1 North American cocoa grindings fell -2.5% y/y to 110,278 MT better than expectations of at least a -5% y/y fall Q1 European cocoa grindings fell -3.7% y/y to 353,522 MT a smaller decline than expectations for a -5% y/y drop Q1 Asian cocoa grinding fell -3.4% y/y to 213,898 MT a smaller decline than expectations for a fall of at least -5% y/y Concern about the Ivory Coast's upcoming mid-crop is underpinning cocoa prices late-arriving rains in the region have limited crop growth The mid-crop is the smaller of two annual cocoa harvests The average estimate for this year's Ivory Coast mid-crop is 400,000 MT Concern that consumer demand for cocoa and cocoa products will decline as the global trade war escalates and tariffs boost already-high cocoa prices is a bearish factor for cocoa one of the world's biggest chocolate makers cut its annual sales guidance in the face of high cocoa prices and tariff uncertainty the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) on February 28 forecasted a global cocoa surplus of 142,000 MT for 2024/25 ICCO also projected that 2024/25 global cocoa production will rise +7.8% y/y to 4.84 MMT cut its Ghana 2024/25 cocoa harvest forecast in December for the second time this season to 617,500 MT down -5% from an August estimate of 650,000 MT said the 2023/24 global cocoa deficit was -441,000 MT ICCO said 2023/24 cocoa production fell -13.1% y/y to 4.380 MMT ICCO said the 2023/24 global cocoa stocks/grindings ratio was 27.0% The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq This data feed is not available at this time These symbols will be available throughout the site during your session These instruments will be available throughout the site during your session Smart Portfolio is supported by our partner TipRanks. By connecting my portfolio to TipRanks Smart Portfolio I agree to their Terms of Use. Explore local sea level rise and coastal flooding risks worldwide with maps that use the most advanced available global model of coastal elevations. is causing hotter temperatures to become more frequent in the four West African countries responsible for producing approximately 70% of the world’s cacao — the key ingredient in chocolate Analysis of daily maximum temperatures during the past decade shows that climate change added at least three weeks above 32°C (89.6°F) annually during the main cacao crop season (October-March) in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana Such temperatures are above the optimal temperature range for cacao trees climate change added just over two weeks above 32°C* annually during the main crop season in Cameroon and more than one week in Nigeria human-caused climate change added six weeks’ worth of days above 32°C in 71% of cacao-producing areas across Côte d'Ivoire such as precipitation and insect-borne infections excessive heat can contribute to a reduction in the quantity and quality of the harvest — potentially increasing global chocolate prices and impacting local economies in West Africa *These days are estimated using Climate Central’s Climate Shift Index (CSI) system Download data (.xlsx) for 44 districts Download report Major funding provided by the Bezos Earth Fund Get updates, media alerts, and climate reporting resources Support our work There are lots of ways to help fund Climate Central today Learn more Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world A farmhand prunes trees on a four-year-old cocoa plantation replanted after swollen shoot disease, in Enchi A drive through swathes of West Africa's growing belt showed farmers battling crop disease and dryness. Bloomberg reporters drove some 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles) last month through key growing areas in Ivory Coast and Ghana What we found: visibly dry farms with flowers withering on trees and producers losing a battle with disease-riddled cocoa plants — all signs the road to recovery will be a tough one which also includes nations like Nigeria and Cameroon has long grappled with blight and aging trees leaving farms particularly vulnerable as harsh weather hammered crops in recent years While international prices spiked as much as fivefold since the end of 2022 the distinct way the top producers sell and price their cocoa mean neither authorities nor farmers have reaped the kinds of windfalls necessary to meaningfully bolster harvests This family-friendly event will include cookies and hot cocoa a variety of fun and interactive activities for children a free photo with Santa and a few special surprises to put you and yours in the holiday spirit Dec Experience the joy of the holiday season sprinkled with a little Mountaineer cheer Register to attend “Cookies and Cocoa with Santa” at the Erickson Alumni Center Pricing is $25 for adults and $10 for children ages 4-12 Purchase your tickets. We look forward to seeing you at the event. In the meantime, contact us at 304-293-4731 or EACEvents@mail.wvu.edu with any questions. Support non-profit journalism and perspectives from around the world. See all those languages? The Lingua project at Global Voices works to bring down barriers to understanding through translation. It’s hard to imagine a world without chocolate when one can find neatly stacked boxes in local grocery stores many stamped with a notice that the product is “sourced in West Africa.” However as West Africa is increasingly shaped by climate change it is worth considering how this highly commercialized holiday — one that fuels sales of chocolates and romantic getaways all around the world — will evolve But this familiar and grotesque display of brown sweets most associated with the holiday may not be part of our Valentine’s Day traditions forever It’s daunting to think that in the next 20 to 30 years chocolate could become a rare luxury — or even disappear altogether Cocoa beans, a key ingredient in the making of chocolate, thrive in warm, humid climates, requiring both rainfall and shade to flourish. But producers warn that deforestation and shifting weather patterns are threatening global supplies. Mondelez International, the company behind Milka and Cadbury chocolate brands, has sounded the alarm: if urgent action isn’t taken key cocoa-producing regions like Ivory Coast and Ghana — responsible for 60 percent of the world’s cocoa output — could become unsuitable for cultivation within the next 30 years Ivory Coast is the leading producer and exporter of cocoa worldwide. In 2019 it exported cocoa and cocoa preparations worth nearly five billion U.S Forest loss in Ivory Coast and Ghana over the last 60 years. Screenshot from International Wildlife Conservation The aftermath of deforestation has also had devastating consequences on biodiversity in the region. Ivory Coast, originally named after the tusks of thousands of elephants that once roamed the region, now only has a few hundred elephants that have survived the destruction of their habitat and using sharp tools to break open cocoa pods This is a complex global value chain marked by high price volatility and growing climate vulnerabilities To understand the scale of the crisis in Ivory Coast Sustainable and Inclusive Development at UNDP Aka knows the harsh realities of cocoa farming firsthand lost his cocoa farm due to drought and environmental pressures He described a deep sense of nostalgia in the communities affected by the drought Farmers have worked the land for generations and are too attached to uproot their aging cocoa trees They cling to the hope of a better harvest next season Aka emphasized that while these steps are promising We need to make machinery accessible to cooperatives so they can grind and roast cocoa before export Considering Ivory Coast supplies 60 percent of the world’s cocoa why isn’t it a major player in the global chocolate market Producing chocolate in Ivory Coast is challenging making it difficult for new players to enter large-scale cocoa processing remains rare in the country the first stages of processing — grinding and roasting — are relatively simple Aka went on to explain the journey of a cocoa bean once it’s harvested: Multinational companies buy raw cocoa from Ivory Coast process it in Europe or the United States (such as grinding and roasting) and then sell it to major chocolate brands like Ferrero These companies are reluctant to give up their control over the market which significantly hampers the development of a local chocolate industry As Ivory Coast develops its cocoa processing capabilities might the market soon see chocolates labeled “Made in Ivory Coast” anytime soon Africa is growing too fast for it not to happen The first step is local cocoa processing but it’s possible to see export-standard We’re already seeing chocolatier schools opening here This was the most exciting part of the conversation — imagining a future where West African chocolate competes in the global market there must be a profound shift in economic policies and a reduction in multinational dominance over the cocoa value chain ERROR: SECURITY TIMEOUT - Please copy your message to a backup location Global Voices stands out as one of the earliest and strongest examples of how media committed to building community and defending human rights can positively influence how people experience events happening beyond their own communities and national borders Please consider making a donation to help us continue this work Donate now Authors, please log in » Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Stay up to date about Global Voices and our mission. See our Privacy Policy for details. Newsletter powered by Mailchimp (Privacy Policy and Terms) Global Voices is supported by the efforts of our volunteer contributors, foundations, donors and mission-related services. For more information please read our Fundraising Ethics Policy Special thanks to our many sponsors and funders Special thanks to our many sponsors and funders. A farmer lays out cocoa beans to dry at a farm in Kwabeng The most-active contract surged as much as 3.8%, the biggest intraday jump since Jan. 16. That’s after prices had slumped in the days that preceded the March expiration. New analysis finds that climate change is heating up West Africa’s cocoa belt, with implications for global chocolate supplies. March ICE NY cocoa (CCH25) today is up +397 (+3.97%), and March ICE London cocoa #7 (CAH25) is up +175 (+2.19%) Cocoa prices today are sharply higher on West African cocoa crop concerns Cocoa farmers in the Ivory Coast and Ghana the world's two biggest cocoa-producing countries said spotty rainfall over the past two weeks has been insufficient for tree regeneration and flowering Also, today's fall in the dollar index (DXY00) to a 2-week low supports most commodity prices, including cocoa. However, gains in London cocoa today are limited after the British pound (^GBPUSD) rallied to a 1-week high undercutting cocoa that is priced in terms of sterling Concern about slowing Ivory Coast cocoa exports is a supportive factor for cocoa prices While government data Monday showed Ivory Coast farmers shipped 1.32 MMT of cocoa to ports so far this marketing year to February 9 the pace has narrowed from the 35% rise seen in December Cocoa prices have been under pressure over the past week and posted 2-month lows last Friday on signs of slowing cocoa demand Chocolate maker Hershey said last Thursday that high cocoa prices are forcing it to reformulate recipes by replacing cocoa with other ingredients chocolate maker Mondelez International pointed to a potential slowdown in chocolate demand when CFO Zarmella said particularly in parts of the world like North America High cocoa prices reduced cocoa demand in Q4 the European Cocoa Association reported that Q4 European cocoa grindings fell -5.3% y/y to 331,853 MT the Cocoa Association of Asia reported that Q4 Asian cocoa grindings fell -0.5% y/y to 210,111 MT the National Confectioners Association reported that Q4 North American cocoa bean grindings fell -1.2% y/y to 102,761 MT West African cocoa crop production concerns are bullish for prices Forecaster Maxar Technologies said this year's seasonal Harmattan winds are the driest in six years Some Ivory Coast and Ghana cocoa farmers have reported that cocoa trees are beginning to suffer the effects of the seasonal dry and dusty Harmattan winds with leaves turning yellow and the cherelles (cocoa pods) withering Concern that the global cocoa deficit could widen is bullish for prices the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) said a survey of global cocoa stockpiles at the end of the 2023/24 season was at 1.041 MMT down -36% y/y and lower than a previous estimate of 1.300 MMT The survey signals that the ICO's 2023/24 global cocoa deficit estimate of -478,000 MT may be even more significant than initially projected Tight global cocoa inventories are also bullish for prices ICE-monitored cocoa inventories held in US ports have been trending lower for the past 1-1/2 years and Cocoa also has support after chocolate maker Hershey Co recently said it sought CFTC approval to buy a large amount of cocoa through the ICE Futures Exchange due to tight global supplies Bloomberg reported that Hershey wants to take a position allowing it to purchase more than 90,000 MT of cocoa on ICE Futures US The purchase size is more than nine times what the exchange currently allows The amount also exceeds a federal position limit of 4,900 contracts Global cocoa shortages are so significant that it is now cheaper to take delivery of supplies through the New York exchange than buying in the physical market NY Cocoa posted an all-time nearest-futures high and London Cocoa posted a 9-month nearest-futures high on the deterioration of the West African cocoa mid-crop outlook Maxar Technologies warned that dry conditions in West Africa will hurt the early development of the mid-year cocoa crop harvested in April and that the arrival of the seasonal Harmattan winds could worsen the situation the International Cocoa Association (ICCO) on November 22 raised its 2023/24 global cocoa deficit estimate to -478,000 MT from May's -462,000 MT ICCO also cut its 2023/24 cocoa production estimate to 4.380 MMT from May's 4.461 MMT ICCO projected a 2023/24 global cocoa stocks/grindings ratio of 27.0% Nigeria's Dec cocoa exports rose +87% y/y to 46,696 MT the Ivory Coast regulator Le Conseil Cafe-Cacao on October 18 raised its Ivory Coast 2024/25 cocoa production estimate to a range of 2.1-2.2 MMT from a June forecast of 2.0 MMT Cocoa found support after Ghana's Cocoa Board (Cocobod) on August 20 cut its 2024/25 Ghana cocoa production estimate to 650,000 MT from a June forecast of 700,000 MT Ghana's 2023/24 coca harvest sank to a 23-year low of 425,000 MT Ghana is the world's second-biggest cocoa producer Smart Portfolio is supported by our partner TipRanks. By connecting my portfolio to TipRanks Smart Portfolio I agree to their Terms of Use March ICE NY cocoa (CCH25) today is up +92 (+0.80%), and March ICE London cocoa #7 (CAH25) is up +118 (+1.28%) Cocoa prices today are climbing for the third consecutive session with NY cocoa posting a 2-week high and London cocoa posting a 1-month high Crop production concerns in West Africa are underpinning prices as forecaster Maxar Technologies said this year's seasonal Harmattan winds are the driest in six years Reduced global cocoa inventories are also supportive of cocoa prices ICE-monitored cocoa inventories held in US ports have been trending lower for the past 1-1/2 years and fell to a 21-year low last Thursday of 1,292,153 bags Cocoa also has support from concern that slowing Ivory Coast cocoa exports will tighten global supplies While government data Monday showed Ivory Coast farmers shipped 1.20 MMT of cocoa to ports so far this marketing year the pace has narrowed from the 35% rise seen last month cocoa prices fell to 1-week lows on concern high prices were causing demand destruction for cocoa Global cocoa shortages are so large that it is now cheaper to take delivery of supplies through the New York exchange than buying in the physical market and London Cocoa posted an 8-1/2 month nearest-futures high on the deterioration of the West African cocoa mid-crop outlook Nigeria's Nov cocoa exports rose +35% y/y to 38,015 MT CGIAR System Organization Audited Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 December 2023 Results from all CGIAR Initiatives and Impact Area Platforms contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals The dashboard also contains a collection of key result stories This dashboard provides an overview of CGIAR's Initiatives by action area and OECD DAC Markers for Climate including historical funding data from 2011 by source of funding This dashboard shows a summary of Funding Allocation of Portfolio and Designated to the CGIAR Research Portfolio in the current year The CGIAR Trust Fund Dashboards provide an overview of contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund by Funders CGIAR Research Programs and Research Initatives since 2011 A dashboard tracking various CGIAR grants that are under implementation The CGIAR workforce dashboards provide insights and analytics on our research and support staff based around the world whose voting members include CGIAR Funders and developing country representatives impact and continued relevance of CGIAR in a rapidly changing landscape of agricultural research for development Working in partnership with the System Council the System Board keeps under review the effectiveness of the CGIAR System and adopts and monitors compliance with CGIAR policies The Road to Ending Malnutrition: How the Paris N4G Summit Sparked a Global Call to Action The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) is supporting the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT to address key challenges in cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea affecting protected forest areas and leading to disputes over land use Climate change further compounds these challenges as changing weather patterns and unpredictable rainfall make it harder for farmers to maintain stable yields 2024 at 10:54 AM ESTBookmarkSaveCocoa futures hit the highest level in more than seven months as West Africa’s production prospects dim threatening global supplies at a time of historically low inventories The most-active contract rose as much as 6.1% to $10,454 per metric ton Futures have rallied back to the highs witnessed earlier this year following harsh weather in top growers Ivory Coast and Ghana Large new housing developments bringing nearly 500 homes to the area are expected to bring increased traffic to the two-lane James and Friday roads in the area putting an onus on the county and developers to increase safety measures The commission on Tuesday voted 5-0 to move forward with the speed tables which will be paid for by the developers.Speed tables are flat-topped versions of speed humps and measure 22 feet long and 3 inches high They are meant to be less impactful on cars providing for a smoother transition than transitional speed bumps They have a longer ramp up and down and are typically several feet across guard rails will be installed on either side of the road along the ditches that line the street according to Brevard County public works director Marc Bernath Cocoa annexed that land from the county 15 years ago But roads such as James Road are in unincorporated Brevard County placing responsibility for traffic in and out of the area on the County Commission's shoulders The county could have opted out of having the developers install the speed tables on the 35 mph neighborhood road But if area residents later decided that speed control measures were needed then the county would have had to pay for them Speed tables are expected to cost between $6,000 and $15,000 each according to a study conducted by developers Commissioner Katie Delaney in her first meeting since being elected said she supported having devlopers pay for the speed control measures "There's going to be increased traffic and we have to make sure things are going to be safe We have an opportunity here to have our developer friends pay for improvement on James Road and we'd be silly not to take advantage of that," Delaney said She added that the large increase in homes in the area is going to increase traffic on other area roads like Friday Road something many residents voiced concerns about She promised to keep an eye on how to better improve traffic safety measures there as well going forward said he has small children who he does not feel safe allowing too close to the street because of the cars "whipping by." As a landscaper Scott said speed tables can be harsh on his vehicles and trailers but he'd prioritize keeping people safe Tyler Vazquez is the Brevard County and North Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY Contact Vazquez at 321-480-0854 or tvazquez@floridatoday.com March ICE NY cocoa (CCH25) today is up +455 (+4.20%), and March ICE London cocoa #7 (CAH25) is up +304 (+3.53%) Cocoa prices extended their 6-week rally today with March NY cocoa and Mar London cocoa posting fresh contract highs Cocoa prices are surging as the West African cocoa mid-crop outlook has deteriorated Maxar Technologies warns that dry conditions in West Africa will hurt the early development of the mid-year cocoa crop harvested in April and that the arrival of the seasonal Harmattan winds could worsen the situation Shrinking global cocoa stockpiles are also bullish for prices ICE-monitored cocoa inventories held in US ports have been trending lower for the past 1-1/2 years and fell to a 20-year low Thursday of 1,438,699 bags Also supporting the latest leg higher in cocoa prices was the International Cocoa Association (ICCO) action on November 22 to raise its 2023/24 global cocoa deficit estimate to -478,000 MT from May's -462,000 MT Heavy rain in West Africa has led to reports of high mortality rates of cocoa buds on trees and pushed cocoa prices sharply higher Heavy rain in the Ivory Coast has also flooded fields Recently harvested cocoa beans from the Ivory Coast signal lower quality with counts of about 105 beans per 100 grams The Ivory Coast cocoa regulator allows exporters to buy bean counts of 80 to 100 or slightly more for every 100 grams with the best quality cocoa having the lower count An increase in cocoa supplies from the Ivory Coast Government data Monday showed that Ivory Coast farmers shipped 819,425 MT of cocoa to ports from October 1 to December 8 up +34.5% from 609,446 MT shipped the same time last year Nigeria's Oct cocoa exports rose +15% y/y to 20,508 MT The National Confectioners Association on October 17 reported that North American Q3 cocoa grindings rose +12% y/y to 109,264 MT the Cocoa Association of Asia reported that Q3 Asian cocoa grinding rose +2.6% y/y to 216,998 MT the European Cocoa Association reported that European Q3 cocoa grindings fell -3.3% y/y to 354,335 MT and its 2024/25 cocoa harvest begins in October Cocoa crisis: Climate change threat to chocolate laid bare in new report ahead of Valentine’s Day Our Valentine’s Day box of chocolates is under threat due to extreme weather in the world’s key cocoa growing regions leading to spiking cocoa prices and an uncertain future for cocoa growers A new report by the international development charity Christian Aid shows rising temperatures and erratic rainfall has hammered cocoa harvests in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire where more than 50% of global cocoa is grown This has slashed the availability of cocoa on the global markets seeing prices soar in the UK and around the world to record highs in recent years – and the size of our chocolate bars shrink Cocoa crisis: How chocolate is feeling the bite of climate change coincides with new data from research group Climate Central which shows that over the past decade climate change added at least three weeks above 32°C (89.6°F) annually during the main cacao crop season (October-March) in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana human-caused climate change added six weeks’ worth of days above 32°C in 71% of cacao-producing areas across Côte d'Ivoire Some of the UK’s favourite chocolate companies are now feeling the pinch from the cocoa crisis as well as global confectionary giant Nestle who have spoken out on the threat posed by climate change this year’s cocoa shortage follows a similar crash in production last year which saw cocoa prices rise 400% to $12,218 a ton after droughts floods and climate-related diseases hit cocoa farmers last year a new record was set at $12,605 per ton and prices have remained stubbornly high ever since Director of Policy and Public Campaigns of Christian Aid is calling for action to cut emissions and targeted climate finance for cocoa growers “Growing cocoa is a vital livelihood for many of the poorest people around the world and human caused climate change is putting that under serious threat Chocolate is one of the many products that connects consumers in the global north with growers in the global south driven largely by the greenhouse gas emissions of the global north is causing havoc around the world with cocoa farmers bearing the brunt and targeted climate finance going to cocoa growers to help them adapt.” “My plantations have been dying due to the lack of water and in terms of how it’s affecting me I’m actually not worried that it ‘may’ happen (climate related crop loss) it’s happening already.” “Global cocoa production has been impacted for the about last four years due to a rapidly changing climate The layman’s version of this essentially is they are getting the wrong weather at the wrong point in the growing and harvest cycle Low supply and high global demand have inflated market prices globally from a relatively stable market price to upwards of £10,000 a tonne this has the potential to put us out of business long term as our wholesale price for 2025 is very close to passing our retail price of 2023 Such is the rapid inflation of the base price Larger companies can manipulate recipes to remove cocoa products (substituting cocoa butter for dried cream etc) or alter pack sizes this kind of workaround just isn’t an option so we have no option but increase pricing and hope that the product remains saleable I don’t think any business involved in chocolate has avoided this impact and it’s all down to climate change.” Head of Public Affairs at the Fairtrade Foundation “Environmental sustainability across the cocoa supply chain cannot be achieved without social and economic sustainability Where cocoa producers are bound by trading relationships that require them to sell below the cost of production they may be forced to resort to unsustainable practices The ability of producers to earn a living income is a key enabler as well as a precondition for ensuring effective climate action The payment of higher prices by businesses must be accompanied by greater action by governments “At Fairtrade we believe that the UK’s economic growth is inseparable from trade that benefits farmers across the world We hear every day from farmers who tell us that international trade is still not fair In the Trade Strategy due to be published in Spring the UK government has the power to drive change It can do this by ensuring coherence between its trade “The UK government must carefully craft its approach to trade in a way that supports businesses and the livelihoods of the millions of small-holder farmers in low-income countries This is what will deliver sustainability in our food supply chains.” “Climate change has been killing our crops This means there is no income because we cannot sell anything “What is happening is that my planation has been dying The same thing happened to the banana crops In the past there was a prediction that this would happen in the future but it has come earlier and this is because we are not taking care of our motherland and this is very worrying for our kids and especially for our grandkids.” we recognise that climate change poses a very real threat to cocoa growers worldwide from rising temperatures to unpredictable weather that impacts harvests we’re deeply committed to safeguarding the future of cocoa by supporting more sustainable farming methods and collaborating closely with our growers and suppliers ensuring farmers receive fair prices and promoting a secure future for chocolate production We believe urgent action on climate change is essential to protect both the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and the heritage of chocolate for generations to come.” the cocoa industry and every subsequent industry that supplies have seen rapid rises in market pricing this increase which is completely linked to climate change The 2 major cocoa producing countries are Ivory Coast and Ghana They share a land border and unfortunately and there’s no other country that grows cocoa in enough volume to cover this shortfall [i] https://mcusercontent.com/854a9a3e09405d4ab19a4a9d5/files/2c201765-4023-b867-8a87-1bf35267c7e7/WWA_press_release_West_Africa_heatwave.01.pdf December ICE NY cocoa (CCZ24) today is up +453 (+5.36%), and December ICE London cocoa #7 (CAZ24) is up +401 (+5.46%) with NY cocoa posting a 2-1/2 month high and London cocoa posting a 4-1/4 month high The impact of recent heavy rains on the Ivory Coast is pushing cocoa prices sharply higher based on reports of high mortality rates of cocoa buds on trees because of the heavy rain Gains in London cocoa accelerated today after the British pound (^GBPUSD) tumbled to a 6-1/2 month low The weaker pound boosts cocoa that is priced in terms of sterling Recent adverse weather in West Africa is underpinning cocoa prices Heavy rains in the Ivory Coast flooded fields Shrinking global cocoa stockpiles are bullish for prices ICE-monitored cocoa inventories held in US ports have been trending lower for the past 17 months and fell to a 19-year low Thursday of 1,601,590 bags A bearish factor for cocoa prices is increased supplies from the Ivory Coast Government data Monday showed that Ivory Coast farmers shipped 548,494 MT of cocoa to ports from October 1 to November 17 up +32% from 415,523 MT shipped the same time last year cocoa prices were undercut when the Ivory Coast regulator Le Conseil Cafe-Cacao on October 18 raised its Ivory Coast 2024/25 cocoa production estimate to a range of 2.1-2.2 MMT from a June forecast of 2.0 MMT An increase in cocoa production by Cameroon Cameroon's National Cocoa and Coffee Board reported that in 2023/24 (Aug/July) Cameroon cocoa production rose +1.2% y/y to 266,725 Nigeria's August cocoa exports rose by +6.8% y/y to 14,984 MT Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest cocoa producer the International Cocoa Association (ICCO) on August 30 raised its 2023/24 global cocoa deficit estimate to -462,000 MT from May's -439,000 MT ICCO also cut its 2023/24 cocoa production estimate to 4.330 MMT from May's 4.461 MMT ICCO projected a 2023/24 global cocoa stocks/grindings ratio of a 46-year low of 27.4% You don't have permissions to access this page Climate change drove weeks of crop-withering temperatures last year in the West African countries that underpin the world's chocolate supply hitting harvests and likely further stoking record prices Farmers in the region – which account for some 70 percent of global cacao production – have struggled with heat disease and unusual rainfall in recent years which have all contributed to falling production That has caused an explosion in the price of cocoa which is produced from the beans of the cacao tree A new report found that "climate change is causing hotter temperatures to become more frequent" in Ivory Coast by the independent research group Climate Central found the trend was particularly marked in Ivory Coast and Ghana Using observational data from 44 cacao-producing areas in West Africa and computer models the researchers compared today's temperatures with a counterfactual of a world without the effects of climate change They looked at the likelihood of these regions facing temperatures in excess of 32 degrees Celsius (89.6 Fahrenheit) – above levels considered optimum for cacao trees The report calculated that over the last decade climate change had added an extra three weeks of above 32C heat in Ivory Coast and Ghana during the main growing season between October and March they found that climate change drove temperatures above 32C on at least 42 days across two thirds of the areas analyzed Researchers said that "excessive heat can contribute to a reduction in the quantity and quality of the harvest" Many other factors were also potentially harming cacao trees and boosting prices Christian Aid published separate research on Wednesday on the vulnerability of chocolate and cacao farmers to weather changes and extremes driven by global warming The UK charity said conditions in West Africa have whiplashed from extreme rainfall and spoiled crops during the dry season in 2023 to drought in 2024 "Growing cocoa is a vital livelihood for many of the poorest people around the world and human caused climate change is putting that under serious threat," said Osai Ojigho director of Christian Aid's policy and public campaigns Failed harvests helped drive a meteoric rise in cocoa prices since late 2023 on the London and New York markets where this commodity is traded New York cocoa prices were above $10,000 a tonne on Wednesday below a peak of over $12,500 in mid-December New York prices have largely hovered between $2,000 and $3,000 a tonne for decades Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Spruengli said it would raise prices again this year to offset rising cocoa costs a professor at Mississippi State University said the crop faces an "existential threat" largely because of increasingly dry conditions in cacao-producing regions Pricope was part of recent research from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification that found more than three-quarters of the Earth's landmass has become drier over the past 30 years The emissions of planet-heating greenhouse gases are the biggest driver of this aridity she said in a commentary on the Conversation on Monday but practices that degrade soils and nature also play an important role "Collective action against aridity isn't just about saving chocolate – it's about preserving the planet's capacity to sustain life," she said © Agence France-Presse This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Like most Christmas albums released after 2010 and those couches in the “As Is″ section at IKEA, hot chocolate is underrated. Those foil-topped capsules that live beside the coffee at your office caffeine station might have something to do with it. The good news is, NYC is home to plenty of chocolate shops, bakeries, and cafes serving incredible cups of hot cocoa that each deserve their own hot beverage award. Never settle for Swiss Miss again. New York 10003">.css-56eu0z{width:1em;height:1em;display:inline-block;line-height:1em;-webkit-flex-shrink:0;-ms-flex-negative:0;flex-shrink:0;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray100);vertical-align:middle;fill:currentColor;}67 Cooper Square New York You tilt the little paper cup toward your mouth the East Village bakery offering baked potato buns and reimagined Cosmic Brownies tops their hot chocolate with a layer of vanilla bean custard there’s milk and heavy cream infused with Valrhona and a dab of cinnamon that keeps you on your toes Rigor Hill Market American Tribeca Like most items at this compact Tribeca market where locals in Loewe sneakers pop in for Hudson Valley produce and breakfast sandwiches on pan de mie the $10 beverage is served in a small soup container with a spoon alongside to scoop up the torched marshmallows that taste like a sticky bonfire NY 10018">1050 Avenue of the Americas New York Bakery/Cafe Midtown Now that there's a location in Bryant Park you no longer need to book a trans-Atlantic flight to try the iconic hot chocolate from Angelina Paris gently spiced hot chocolate that comes with a sidecar of perfectly light Chantilly cream but we like taking a moment to sit and enjoy the unreasonably soothing act of pouring this hot chocolate into a pretty little mug Thierry Atlan Dessert Soho Skip the lines at Ladurée and head down the street to Thierry Atlan when you're in the mood for hot chocolate and macarons This tiny jewel box of a shop is operated by a "Meilleur Ouvrier de France chocolatier," and whether you know what that means anything made with chocolate here is going to impress from perfect truffles to an extraordinarily well-balanced cup of hot chocolate that's served at just the right temperature MarieBelle The Hungarian Pastry Shop Hungarian West Harlem The hot chocolate at The Hungarian Pastry Shop isn't showy but that doesn't mean it's not great We can't say exactly how they make this practically unsweetened old fashioned cocoa-like drink taste so good It could be an extremely jazzed-up mix sprinkled with love or it could be a secret recipe passed down for generations L.A. Burdick Mah-Ze-Dahr West Village That’s the first word that comes to mind when we think about the hot chocolate from this West Village cafe From the toasted marshmallow that slowly melts with every sip to the deep Even if you usually order your hot beverages in a small cup this drink will make you want to order an XXL you’ll have to settle for the large and return for another cup sometime in the future Bar Pisellino Italian Bar Pisellino’s hot chocolate is notably thick Drinking it feels like starring in your own Hallmark holiday movie If you’re ever in the West Village on a weekend morning stop by and drink one on their sidewalk patio You’ll have front-row seats to some prime people watching à la the Via Carota brunch crowd and celebrity dog walkers along 7th Avenue Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain Ice Cream Carroll Gardens New Yorkers have flocked to this old-school ice cream shop in Carroll Gardens for pretzel sundaes and egg creams their hot cocoa topped with toasted marshmallow fluff is the main draw The “fluff” in question is made in-house and tastes like a scoop of cotton candy that’s been set ablaze for just a few seconds Dominique Ansel Bakery Wafels & Dinges Today was as nice a December day that you could ask for Please enter your username or e-mail address You will receive a new password via e-mail Traffic calming devices known as speed tables have become a point of contention for some residents of West Cocoa, already upset that a planned nearby subdivision will change the rural feel of the area. Several people spoke at Tuesday's meeting of the Brevard County Commission to ask commissioners to have developers reconsider installing eight of the devices on James Road Having the developer install traffic calming devices on the road is part of a deal that allows the new neighborhood go forward Speed tables are flat-topped versions of speed hump Cocoa annexed that land from the county 15 years ago and approved the subdivision one of only two including Friday Road leading in and out of the area A vote to push forward the speed tables was not held Tuesday and will be taken at the next meeting to take place Dec Some in West Cocoa split over speed tables on James RoadSome at Tuesday's meeting were in favor of some sort of measure to slow traffic on the two-lane road which is susceptible to speeders and could become more dangerous once the 438 new homes become permanent residents But many were skeptical of putting eight new speed tables in without further consideration saying that he understands it would be reasonable to take some measures to install traffic calming devices with the hundreds of new homes coming to the area we wanted to come here for the peace and the solitude and that's been somewhat disrupted," Kelly said He said he fears having the speed tables right near people's homes will cause disruptive noise from vehicles accelerating frequently outside Many at Tuesday's meeting also were concerned that installing the speed tables would redirect traffic but there are going to be quite a lot of issues when you increase the population by 400 houses and possibly 800 cars," said Carl Exline "I'm also thinking of the wear and tear on my vehicle going over eight," said Kathlyn Canestrari She encouraged the county to move away from speed tables to some other measure "It's a little excessive in my opinion," she said "We don't really have issues on that street." Developers have held public input meetings and sent out surveys to James Road residents as a part of the process deciding on the speed tables a representative for the developer Taylor Morrison said the company has worked closely with the county for months to develop the plan for speed tables "This is not something we came up with spur of the moment," Sullivan said attempting to reassure the public about the possible measure The county could opt out of having the developers install for the speed tables on the 35 mph neighborhood road But if area residents later decided that speed tables are needed after all then the county would have to pay for them "If the board decides no traffic calming is needed today they could proceed with their development," County Attorney Morris Richardson said Tuesday "But they would have then satisfied their obligation under the agreement the developer would no longer be required to pay for it." Speed tables are meant to be less impactful on cars Delaney spoke Tuesday about the need to give the public more time to weigh in before a decision is made The delay in a vote this week means Delaney herself will be among those making a final decision "You're going to have to move very quickly to get some extra input," Pritchett Tyler Vazquez is the Brevard County and North Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Vazquez at 321-480-0854 or tvazquez@floridatoday.com About us | Advertise with us | Contact us Posted: 28 November 2024 | New Food | No comments yet and the cocoa industry sign a landmark agreement to combat child labour and improve community welfare A new agreement to combat child labour in the cocoa-growing regions of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana was signed yesterday by key stakeholders the Governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana The 2024 Framework of Action aims to accelerate efforts to eliminate child labour by fostering a coordinated Between them, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana contribute almost 60 percent of the world’s cocoa. This framework recognises the urgent need for collective action to address the root causes of child labour By defining clear roles and responsibilities for each signatory it aims to ensure effective implementation and mobilise additional support for child labour prevention initiatives First Lady of Côte d’Ivoire and President of the National Oversight Committee for actions against child trafficking stating: “This new partnership agreement between Côte d’Ivoire and the cocoa and chocolate industry is a new hope for better results in the fight against child labour thanks to our combined efforts and the pooling of our resources “We will continue to coordinate and monitor the implementation of all the initiatives and actions of this new 2024-2029 Framework of Action I sincerely hope that all national players and our international partners will contribute in order to promote the well-being of our children.” The Framework focuses on several key areas aimed at improving the lives of children and families in cocoa-growing communities These include improving child labour monitoring systems enhancing access to quality education and vocational training and empowering women and youth in cocoa farming communities it seeks to increase household income and promote social dialogue at the community level to address the root causes of child labour A major focus will be aligning private child labour monitoring systems with national frameworks such as Côte d’Ivoire’s Système d’Observation et de Suivi du Travail des Enfants (SOSTECI) and Ghana’s Child Labor Monitoring Systems (GCLMS) These systems will ensure transparency and coordination across the region making it easier to identify and address issues of child labour Ghana’s Minister of Employment and Labour Relations emphasised Ghana’s “dedication and renewed commitment” to eliminating child labour and collaborating with all partners to achieve the goals of the agreement The Framework also prioritises improving social services and strengthening national child protection systems to provide safer environments for children an Action Plan will be developed within six months to specify the activities each signatory will undertake and set progress indicators to track the impact of the initiative believes the scheme will have a positive impact on the regions “The 2024 CLCCG Framework of Action represents a significant step forward in our shared mission to combat child labour in cocoa-growing communities It underscores the cocoa and chocolate industry’s steadfast commitment to help foster sustainable livelihoods and help children thrive “The World Cocoa Foundation greatly values the collaboration of our CLCCG partners—the Governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and other key stakeholders—whose dedication and expertise have been crucial to advancing this mission.” This new partnership represents a long-term commitment to tackling the systemic challenges of child labour in cocoa-growing communities and to improving the prospects of West Africa’s cocoa farmers and their families Recruitment & workforce, Regulation & Legislation, Trade & Economy, World Food Africa By New Food No comments yet Confectionery & Chocolate All subscriptions include online membership giving you access to the journal and exclusive content By Ian Westcott By Ben Cornwell By Professor Chris Elliott Comment * document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id" "aff5b9f025bdc85e092334305b8d3a49" );document.getElementById("de5d8d4fb7").setAttribute( "id" Write for us | Advertise with us New Food is published by: Russell Publishing Ltd.Court LodgeHogtrough HillBrasted © Russell Publishing Limited, 2010-2025. All rights reserved. Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy Website design and development by e-Motive Media Limited Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website These cookies do not store any personal information CookieDescriptioncookielawinfo-checkbox-advertising-targetingThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Advertising & Targeting".cookielawinfo-checkbox-analyticsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent WordPress Plugin The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Analytics".cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessaryThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".cookielawinfo-checkbox-performanceThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent WordPress Plugin The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Performance".PHPSESSIDThis cookie is native to PHP applications The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed.viewed_cookie_policyThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies It does not store any personal data.zmember_loggedThis session cookie is served by our membership/subscription system and controls whether you are able to see content which is only available to logged in users Global market data company Innova says in 2023 nearly two-thirds of consumers worldwide bought some form of chocolate And according to international consumer insights firm Statista the chocolate market is today worth $133 billion – and is expected to grow every year by close to five percent But chocolate comes at a price that goes beyond what we pay in the shops. The industry has a heavy impact on the environment, and Israeli startup Celleste Bio is determined to change that with its lab-cultivated cocoa beans The World Wildlife Fund says that farmers who grow the cocoa beans – 70 percent of whom are in the West African countries of Ivory Coast Nigeria and Cameroon – tend to clear tropical forests to plant new cocoa trees West Africa is experiencing massive deforestation But the environmental toll does not end there Two other common ingredients in chocolate – soy and palm oil – are also major causes of deforestation around the world such as Germany’s Ritter Sport and Tony’s Chocolonely of the Netherlands this has yet to take hold in the industry as a whole But Celleste Bio says it has the answer – cultivating cocoa in the lab that is indistinguishable from farmed cocoa because we’ve found a way to produce 100 percent natural cocoa without all the limitations and the problems that this broken supply chain has,” Celleste CEO Michal Beressi Golomb tells NoCamels The lab-cultivated cocoa is grown from just a couple of actual beans The Misgav-based company’s unique method uses cell culture technology to create the cocoa beans and combines it with AI modeling to create the optimal growing conditions These bean cells are then used to make the cocoa butter needed to manufacture chocolate which has the identical chemical profile to the original “We are the first in the world to have been able to produce chocolate-grade cocoa butter,” Beressi Golomb says She explains that the company takes the cells from one or two cocoa beans and places them in a liquid culture in a bioreactor The cells rapidly multiply and are harvested to obtain the butter It takes just seven days for the bean cells to mature in the bioreactor so that the butter can be harvested Celleste also produces cocoa powder from the remainder of the beans once the butter is extracted And no stage of the process involves genetic modification a fact Beressi Golomb makes sure to stress makes the cocoa bean cells think that they are growing in a pod on a tree “We’re using the bioreactor as our forest,” she says This means that the bean cells can be grown anywhere in the world and not just in the traditional hot countries around the equator Beressi Golomb points out that the company’s method also eradicates high-quality beans’ vulnerability to pests and disease a sensitivity that devastated the Brazilian cocoa bean industry – downgrading it from the world’s second-largest cocoa producer 40 years ago to just the seventh-largest today She warns that West African cocoa farmers are now facing a similar situation Celleste Bio was established in late 2022, two years after its founders began working on a way to make chocolate healthier. But, Beressi Golomb says, with support of Israeli agritech and foodtech incubator Trendlines they soon pivoted to cultivating cocoa for the industry The company soon caught the interest of American multinational Mondelez one of the largest food companies in the world whose portfolio includes global chocolate brands such as Cadbury And today the food giant is Celleste’s strategic investor “They’re a great partner and they’re very excited about it,” says Beressi Golomb but they are all focused on cocoa powder and none have been able to produce cocoa butter with such a huge market for both cocoa butter and cocoa powder Celleste has already produced its proof of concept in the form of its chocolate-grade cocoa butter and is now focusing on upscaling its process with the objectives of both creating a 50,000 liter bioreactor (it is currently aiming for a 1,000 liter bioreactor within a year) and being ready for market in 2027 “We’re here to save the chocolate industry,” says Beressi Golomb “and to ensure that everybody can eat chocolate and feel good about it.” Today's print edition Home Delivery Moussa Konate is an optimist tempering hope with caution after a season in which his cocoa crop was ravaged by disease The outlook is brightening on his tiny Ivory Coast farm where the October harvest is approaching fast His trees are bearing abundant pods and the leaves are a healthy green.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); That happy state reflects improvements across the West African cocoa belt that could help relieve a massive supply shortage that propelled prices to record highs this year the 47-year old has finally received pesticides to help reduce the harm done by swollen shoot disease and expects yields to be significantly higher than the single ton he gathered last season In a time of both misinformation and too much information quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing Your subscription plan doesn't allow commenting. To learn more see our FAQ Sponsored contents planned and edited by JT Media Enterprise Division you may have noticed your favorite items are either smaller or more expensive The price of cocoa — the key ingredient in chocolate — is the highest it’s ever been after nearly doubling in the last four months this worldwide shortage has been years in the making Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy you may have noticed that your favorite items are either smaller or more expensive The key ingredient in chocolate is cocoa and the price of cocoa is the highest it's ever been Ali Rogin tells us that this worldwide shortage has been years in the making It's a sweet treat and can be an affordable indulgence But the rising cost of cocoa could soon leave a bitter taste in the mouths of chocoholics The people who will be affected are would be the chocolate lovers who really want to buy good quality chocolate at extremely low prices Chocolate making starts with cocoa beans and extremely vulnerable crops and supply chain strategist Matt Spooner The El Nino last year caused particularly hot wet weather in Western Africa which has impacted the quality of the cocoa harvest there's a disease which is sweeping through the West African cocoa of crops called swallow chute disease West Africa accounts for over 70 percent of the world's cocoa supply But low prices and smaller harvest have tightened farmers margins Ghana is one of the hardest hit places and Ghanaians like Issifu Issaka are struggling to keep family farms afloat You are not able to produce the required amount of cocoa beans you're expected You take this small cocoa bean to the market Most of the farms in West Africa are under 10 acres The farmers who cultivate them earn less than $2 per day This crisis has come about because of a long term underinvestment or underpayment of the farmers Another factor rising production costs fertilizers and pesticides are more expensive due to inflation in the war in Ukraine And they're more necessary as far as age and erratic weather increases the risk of disease More sustainable practices like planting cocoa alongside other trees would make farms more resilient but cost more upfront We shouldn't talk of sustainability in in terms of the cocoa tree or the other cocoa bean but sustainability in terms of the living condition of the farmer rampant illegal gold mining threatens the cocoa farms Today we don't get labor because instead of going to work for a cocoa farmer you rather go and work for illegal miner who pays him a huge amount of money as compared to the cocoa sector The miners also flood farmland to help extract the gold that lies below the cocoa trees This is cocoa farmer Janet Gyamfi harvesting one of her 6,000 cocoa trees just last year the pits of mercury and heavy metal lead in water pollute the waterways that supply farms miles away They've even come to my house at night to make death threats Cocoa farming isn't just a dangerous business People are not interested to becoming cocoa farmers because they don't see the cocoa farming as a good business venture That's in part because the high price cocoa was commanding doesn't reach the farmers growing it the government sets the so called farm gate price It's meant to insulate farmers from low prices but it's often out of step with the market In early April the Ghana Cocoa Board said it would raise the price over 50 percent that's still nowhere near the price experts say farmers need to stay afloat deciding the price for you the farmer who have not even cutlass on his hand and reading on the farm before Further up the supply chain big companies like Hershey and Cadbury are increasing prices to make up for high ingredient costs even as they report shrinking sales One strategy is to reformulate the chocolates and increase more non-chocolate ingredients so maybe more wafers into their chocolates and reducing the cocoa content so they could still provide the same size chocolate to a consumer but actually contains more non chocolate ingredients Toblerone had to remove its classic depiction of the Matterhorn mountain peak when it moves some production out of Switzerland to reduce costs Companies are also diversifying beyond pure chocolate creating new flavors and marketing other candy California based Voyage Foods is taking a different approach altogether Our core mission is to future proof some of our favorite foods Kelsey Tenney is voyage as Vice President of Research and Development It is not our aim to replace cocoa as a commodity globally we are looking to essentially buffer out the supply chain and create a product that can be utilized in your favorite chocolate chip cookie that you buy in the grocery store The key ingredient in voyage is chips and easy melt wafers Not everyone has done this but if you've tasted a raw cacao seed And so we study the process and the starting material and aim to recreate a final product through different starting material There have been attempts to replicate chocolate through the decades there's no substitute that can meet global demand And that's why Isiffu says the world still needs cocoa farmers If other people I knew also leave the cocoa sector So how are the consumers going to live with our cocoa That's a future most chocolate lovers don't want to contemplate Ali Rogin is a correspondent for the PBS News Hour and PBS News Weekend reporting on a number of topics including foreign affairs She received a Peabody Award in 2021 for her work on News Hour’s series on the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect worldwide Rogin is also the recipient of two Edward R Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association and has been a part of several teams nominated for an Emmy including for her work covering the fall of ISIS in 2020 the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2014 Satvi Sunkara is an associate producer for PBS News Weekend © 1996 - 2025 NewsHour Productions LLC PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization Subscribe to Here's the Deal with Lisa Desjardins The dates displayed for an article provide information on when various publication milestones were reached at the journal that has published the article activities on preceding journals at which the article was previously under consideration are not shown (for instance submission All content on this site: Copyright © 2025 Elsevier B.V. Metrics details Previous research indicates that some important cocoa cultivated areas in West Africa will become unsuitable for growing cocoa in the next decades it is not clear if this change will be mirrored by the shade tree species that could be used in cocoa-based agroforestry systems (C-AFS) We characterized current and future patterns of habitat suitability for 38 tree species (including cocoa) using a consensus method for species distribution modelling considering for the first time climatic and soil variables The models projected an increase of up to 6% of the potential suitable area for cocoa by 2060 compared to its current suitable area in West Africa the suitable area was highly reduced (14.5%) once considering only available land-use not contributing to deforestation 50% of the 37 shade tree species modelled will experience a decrease in geographic rate extent by 2040 in West Africa Hotspots of shade tree species richness overlap the current core cocoa production areas in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire suggesting a potential mismatch for the outer areas in West Africa Our results highlight the importance of transforming cocoa-based agroforestry systems by changing shade tree species composition to adapt this production systems for future climate conditions the prospect of lower rainfall induced by climate change threatens the livelihoods of millions of persons in this region we hypothesized that overall habitat suitability will be reduced for all species considered in this study with higher impact for genuine tropical species we aimed: (i) to assess the relative importance of bioclimatic and edaphic factors regarding their habitat suitability in West Africa; (ii) to predict current and future suitable habitat distribution of cocoa and associated shade trees under projected future climate changes (2040 and 2060) and (iii) to identify current and future priority areas for C-AFS based on cocoa habitat suitability and hotspots of shade species typology (e.g The results of this study can be directly used in agroforestry systems as inputs for decision support systems particularly in the selection of shade tree species plantations design and management planning TSS and AUC (unitless) for cocoa and shade tree species according to algorithm included in the consensus species distribution model approach Species names are shown when AUC is less than 0.8 in at least one algorithm Models implemented: Generalized Boosted Regression Models (GBM) Generalized Linear Models (GLM) and Random Forest (RF) Variable importance (%) in species distribution model of cocoa and shade tree species considering the GBM algorithm. Variables are ordered according to the median of variable importance for the 38 species modelled. For variable information see Table 1 Nitrogen soil content and CEC were the strongest predictors of occurrence for Theobroma cacao L. Change in suitable area for the 37 shaded tree species and cocoa considering two Shared Socio-economic Pathways: left SSP126 and right SSP585 for the period 2021–2040 (top) and 2040–2060 (bottom) Black bars indicate the percentage of suitable area under the current climatic conditions Blue bars show an increase in suitable area while red indicates decrease under future scenarios Bars with darker colour indicate the percentage change considering all suitable area and bars with lighter colour change considering the area currently available for agroforestry not contributing to deforestation (i.e. Species are sorted from higher increase to higher decrease in suitable area For species names: black for cocoa; brown for timber trees; green for leguminous trees; purple for fruit trees and blue for species with other uses Mean cocoa habitat suitability and temperature seasonality for each species Each dot corresponds to the mean seasonality and cocoa habitat suitability of the area suitable for the species under current climatic conditions while the arrow indicates the shift for 2041- 2060 in the high emissions scenario (SSP585) Species towards the bottom right corner show low temperature seasonality affinity and high overlap with cocoa habitat suitability few modelling frameworks have incorporated potentially ecologically relevant sets of predictors beyond climate variables this is the first time that edaphic variables have been incorporated into distribution models to study the potential impacts of climate change on cocoa-based agroforestry systems we attempt to identify those climatic and edaphic factors that are most likely to become limiting to cocoa and associated species and that must be considered when designing adaptation strategies in smart agroforestry Our results suggest that land use planning that considers potential climate change impacts will be needed for agroforestry systems to remain as the best alternative for climate adaptation of cocoa fields Climate variables were the most important factor to explain the distribution of cocoa and most of the shade tree species considered for West Africa. Across species, the most important predictor was temperature seasonality with up to 80% relevance for some species (see Fig. 2) precipitation of the warmest and coldest quarters and maximum monthly precipitation) were only relevant for certain species the contribution rate of temperature seasonality reached > 50% while precipitation of the warmest quarter was the second most important the tolerance to variables temperatures should also be considered as an important factor in defining product profiles for cocoa breeding programs Other potentially important predictors that could limit the ability of plant species to establish in areas that have just entered their climatic niches such as topography or socio-economic factors could look into the importance of these relevant variables particularly at smaller scales The restricted dataset used in those studies limit their ability to predict the suitability of the species as it only considers a narrow climate variability we used the latest climate projections from the new CMIP6 models Considering its relevance as timber species across the tropics these findings encourage its wide use in agroforestry systems the models project a considerable shrink in suitable area for several fruit species widely used in West Africa (e.g. and Persea americana Mill.) which might require the shift to alternative species with less bioclimatic limitations and a potential increase in suitability area The variety of shade species that farmers could use in the design of their agroforestry systems is highly context dependent based on the environmental and economic limitations The pool of species considered show a well coverage across the main environmental gradient in the region (i.e including an adequate mix of different main uses the choice of N-fixing species is very limited at the lower range of temperature seasonality Given the importance of these species to ameliorate soil conditions it might be relevant to identify other potential candidates (e.g. or Leucaena diversifolia (Schltdl.) Benth.) within each range of temperature seasonality there are shade species with at least partial overlap with cocoa habitat suitability (> 0.2) it seems farmers have a wide variety of shade species that could be selected according to the environmental and economic context maximizing the cocoa habitat overlap of their locality this suitable space although limited might be of special importance to reduce the pressure of intensive cocoa farming to forests Future scenarios show a reduction of shade species richness This trend is especially relevant under the more extreme socioeconomic pathway Despite the reduction in the variety of species that farmers could use it is relevant that all cocoa producing areas will at least keep more than 10 species under environmental suitable conditions More in-depth scientific investigations and better communications on the effect of different native tree species on yield and provisioning ecosystem services is hence required to motivate their selection in agroforestry systems whilst the quantitative results could be quite different using field data we believe that the overall projections and trends over the large study area considered here will be similar with the present resources at hand the area highly suitable for the different species obtained from this work does not necessarily translate into a measure of successful field establishment as in addition to the environmental factors used in this study multiple other physical and socioeconomic factors might determine their survival (e.g the results obtained from these models are a starting point to adapt most of the cocoa production systems in West Africa to climate change as new modelling approaches and datasets are developed there will be a need to re-analyse the existing data with greater temporal and spatial resolution We obtained for all 45 species, a total of 33,895 occurrence points from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) (https://www.gbif.org) at global scale (list of all downloads used in supplementary material Table S1) Unsuitable presence locations points were identified and deleted in a step-by-step procedure according to the following criteria: records (i) with no geographic information or with incomplete coordinates; (ii) with clear errors such as locations in the ocean and mismatches between administrative data and coordinates; (iii) collected before 1969 to meet the current baseline climate used; (iv) in marginal climates (e.g. botanical gardens in temperate climate) within the last 10% of the climatic gradient distribution and; (v) “fossil” records or from unknown sources We also reduced the possible effects of sampling bias and spatial autocorrelation keeping only one record per species per 2.5 arc-min grid (to overlap with environmental information) we selected those species with n > 60 presence locations points The final dataset included 14,368 occurrences for 38 shade tree species and 401 locations points for cocoa reporting gridded mean climate values from a baseline period of 1970–2000 The dataset was downloaded globally at 2.5 arc-min spatial resolution (~ 5 × 5 km at the equator) The dataset considered 19 climate variables commonly used in biogeographical studies Outputs from the new circulation models of the Coupled Model Inter-Comparison Project Phase (CMIP6) were used to assess projected changes in future climate Downscaled monthly future climate data from CMIP6 is available for nine global climate models and four Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs) To provide plausible future scenarios for management we selected two contrasting SSPs scenarios (i.e. The land cover classification map was created between December 2015 and December 2016 These binary maps were used to estimate the change in suitable area available per species To identify the overlap in habitat suitability between each species and cocoa across the most relevant environmental gradient we calculated per shade tree species within their area projected as suitable (a) the mean cocoa habitat suitability and (b) the mean of the most relevant variable for all species These averages were estimated for current conditions and the SSP585 by 2041–2060 shade species richness maps for the study area were calculated per SSP and time-period accumulating the binary results across all shade species Towards Cote d’Ivoire sustainable cocoa initiative IPCC reasons for concern regarding climate change risks Predicting the future climatic suitability for cocoa farming of the world’s leading producer countries Vulnerability to climate change of cocoa in West Africa: Patterns From site-level to regional adaptation planning for tropical commodities: Cocoa in West Africa Coffee and cocoa production in agroforestry—a climate-smart agriculture model in Climate change and agriculture worldwide 209–224 (Springer Shade trees and tree pruning alter throughfall and microclimate in cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) production systems Shade management in coffee and cacao plantations The effectiveness of cocoa agroforests depends on shade-tree canopy height Multipurpose shade trees in coffee and cocoa plantations in Côte d’Ivoire Long-term dynamics of cocoa agroforests: A case study in central Cameroon The future of coffee and cocoa agroforestry in a warmer Mesoamerica New paradigms for modelling species distributions? Novel methods improve prediction of species’ distributions from occurrence data Beyond climate: Disturbance niche shifts in invasive species Improving the prediction of plant species distribution and community composition by adding edaphic to topo-climatic variables The Living Soil: Fundamentals of Soil Science and Soil Biology (Science Publishers Root deployment and shoot growth for two desert species in response to soil rockiness Soil nutritional factors improve models of plant species distribution: An illustration with Acer campestre (L.) in France Soil properties and tree species drive ß-diversity of soil bacterial communities How much do we overestimate future local extinction rates when restricting the range of occurrence data in climate suitability models? Species distribution models that do not incorporate global data misrepresent potential distributions: A case study using Iberian diving beetles Improving field establishment of cacao (Theobroma cacao) through mulching Land use and climate change impacts on global soil erosion by water (2015–2070) Agroforestry boosts soil health in the humid and sub-humid tropics: A meta-analysis The physiological responses of cacao to the environment and the implications for climate change resilience Climatic-induced shifts in the distribution of teak (Tectona grandis) in tropical Asia: Implications for forest management and planning FAOSTAT. http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data Cocoa agroforests in West Africa: A look at activities on preferred trees in the farming systems (Forest & Landscape Denmark (FLD) Copenhagen Biodiversity of West African Forests: An Ecological Atlas of Woody Plant Species Managing native and non-native plants in agroforestry systems Ecosystem services of native trees: Experiences from two traditional agroforestry systems in Karnataka Model-based uncertainty in species range prediction Characterizing uncertainty in species distribution models derived from interpolated weather station data Protected areas offer refuge from invasive species spreading under climate change WorldClim 2: New 1-km spatial resolution climate surfaces for global land areas SoilGrids 2.0: Producing quality-assessed soil information for the globe rgee: An R package for interacting with Google Earth Engine Beyond a climate-centric view of plant distribution: Edaphic variables add value to distribution models The spatial distribution of xylophage insects within the Mediterranean oak woodlands of Southwestern Spain R: A language and environment for statistical computing BiodiversityR: Package for community ecology and suitability analysis The use of the area under the ROC curve in the evaluation of machine learning algorithms Ensemble species distribution modelling with transformed suitability values Evaluation of consensus methods in predictive species distribution modelling Simultaneous inference in general parametric models Selecting thresholds of occurrence in the prediction of species distributions Replication Data for: Vulnerability of cocoa-based agroforestry systems to climate change in West Africa Download references Pablo González Moreno was supported by a “Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación” contract (MINECO This research was funded by Mondelēz International as part of Forecast Scenarios for Cocoa Agroforestry (CocoAgroForecast) project Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences All author(s) contributed substantially to the concept and design of the study drafted the article and carried out the analysis with initial work by K.D.S All author(s) critically reviewed the manuscript and approved the final version of the manuscript for publication Author(s) give full permission for the publication The authors declare no competing interests Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-37180-3 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily. Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker News & Analysis on Chocolate, Candy and Cocoa 19-May-2024 Last updated on 19-May-2024 at 16:28 GMT The organisation released the fourth edition of its West Africa Cocoa Programme (WACP) Monitoring Report, which continued to show significant growth in training in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Sierra Leone. In 2023, 48,876 participants, of which 11,812 were female, 24%, participated in training. This represents a 22 percent increase compared to data gathered in 2022. Key training topics included human rights and environmental due diligence, deforestation, and traceability and transparency. Fairtrade said these modules are specifically designed for the West African cocoa context and are regularly updated due to the evolving cocoa landscape. In addition to an in-depth analysis of training, technical support, peer-to-peer learning, and sales for small producer organisations (SPOs), the report also focused on programmes and case studies. The Fairtrade Young Cooperative Managers Academy is also active in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire and provides young people with entrepreneurial skills via training, hands-on assignments, coaching, and mentoring. Dwomor Boahene, member of Asunafo North Cooperative Union, called the academy “a life-changing experience.” Along with being elected as a member of the Supervisory Council/ Control Committee within the union, Dwomor said she has trained women in surrounding communities in what she learned, so they are now running their own small businesses and they’ve also learned how to set up savings accounts. In Côte d’Ivoire, the Women’s School of Leadership (WSOL), a training programme aimed at improving women’s basic leadership skills and the application of human rights provisions on gender issues, is showing signs of great progress. Since 2017, 205 graduates have gone on to share their knowledge and skills with over 10,000 community members. The Women’s School of Leadership covers topics, such as personal development, gender, leadership, income diversification, project management, strategic negotiation, financial management, and entrepreneurship The data for the WACP report was collected through interviews with small producer organisation management and household interviews with the farmer members of those small producer organisations. Fairtrade International said the increase reflects the success of a “cascading” approach in which Fairtrade Africa trains a set of cooperative managers and farmers, who then bring the information back to their organisations and communities to replicate the trainings themselves. “This expands the number of participants, while also entrenching the knowledge and skills more deeply within organisations,” it said in the report. Civil societies welcome EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive29-Apr-2024By Anthony MyersThe proposed EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) seeks to introduce legal obligations for large corporations to conduct human rights and environmental due diligence in their global supply chains. Fairtrade UK hits 30 and continues to make its mark28-Mar-2024By Anthony MyersFairtrade is marking its 30th anniversary with a series of innovative events and campaigns throughout the year.  Making a meaningful impact through ethical and sustainable cocoa productionPaid for and content provided by Fludor Ghana Ltd European-quality chocolates reshape the market with local production and competitive pricingPaid for and content provided by IRCA Group The sweet spot: 100% indulgence with cost-effective, natural confectionery ingredientsPaid for and content provided by Avebe supply snarls have hit fuels and commodities that the global economy fundamentally relies upon Now the crunch is coming for an indulgence many of us love Learn why weather in West Africa is sending chocolate prices soaring in the U.S View the transcript of the story News alternative: Check out recent segments from the NewsHour, and choose the story you’re most interested in watching. You can make a Google doc copy of discussion questions that work for any of the stories here Chocolate prices may represent a small part of our economy economy is impacted by crisis outside the U.S can do to lessen the impacts of overseas crises on the economy Media literacy: Why do you think the producers of this segment chose to focus on the cost of just one specific import Fill out this form to share your thoughts on Classroom’s resources. Sign up for NewsHour Classroom’s ready-to-go Daily News Lessons delivered to your inbox each week. Hear from political commentators discuss Trump's second term and public opinion Hear from Michael Bingham about his work to provide an accessible space for artists with disabilities Discuss how society chooses to memorialize its history Learn why there's been fewer low-hazard personal care products available for Black women than the market as a whole Copyright © 2025 NewsHour Production LLC. All Rights Reserved Chocolate lovers are in for a long wait for cheaper bars Metrics details account for two thirds of the global cocoa production providing income to almost two million farmers Yet precise maps of the area planted with cocoa are missing hindering accurate quantification of expansion in protected areas production and yields and limiting information available for improved sustainability governance Here we combine cocoa plantation data with publicly available satellite imagery in a deep learning framework and create high-resolution maps of cocoa plantations for both countries Our results suggest that cocoa cultivation is an underlying driver of over 37% of forest loss in protected areas in Côte d’Ivoire and over 13% in Ghana and that official reports substantially underestimate the planted area (up to 40% in Ghana) These maps serve as a crucial building block to advance our understanding of conservation and economic development in cocoa-producing regions the extent to which cocoa has directly and indirectly replaced forest has been uncertain high-resolution maps of cocoa-growing areas is currently missing Up-to-date maps could greatly enhance efforts to halt deforestation by highlighting high-deforestation-risk sourcing areas for cocoa verifying production quantities and estimating on-farm versus off-reserve production area the spatial extent of cocoa production could be linked with more readily available data on production quantities to inform more targeted extension activities deep models offer an unprecedented ability to recognize visual patterns in unseen data We illustrate the utility of our map by analysing planted area as well as farming practices and sustainability efforts for reducing deforestation highlighting the need for land cover mapping independent of farmers We also identify regional areas that are exposed to poor growing conditions We first demonstrate the reliability of our ensemble model with four standard accuracy metrics Precision (user’s accuracy) measures the proportion of correctly classified pixels among all pixels assigned to a class Recall (producer’s accuracy) is the proportion of correctly classified pixels among all pixels that truly belong to a class We additionally report accuracy (the overall fraction of correctly classified pixels) and F1 score (defined as the harmonic mean of precision and recall for a class c) as summary statistics: particularly when the map resolution is high (in our case 10 m) either one would need access to images of even higher resolution anywhere in the region of interest to perform photo interpretation or one must collect in situ data across entire countries which is often not possible due to the difficulties of accessing randomly sampled locations that may lie in difficult terrain lack infrastructure or be subject to land rights our result deviates only marginally from the harvested area (average 2017–2020) in Côte d’Ivoire but differs drastically for Ghana’s total harvested area FAOSTAT reports 4.47 Mha of harvested area in Côte d’Ivoire (that is 0.5% more than our estimate) and only 1.63 Mha in Ghana (39.8% less than our estimate) Comparison of planted area and total area per region in Côte d’Ivoire (top) and Ghana (bottom) The grey bars represent the total area of each region while the red bars show the mean absolute cocoa-planted area for the ten models (the black error bars show the corresponding standard deviations) The percentages indicate the relative amount of cocoa-planted area to the total area per region Regional yield differences measured in kilograms per hectare in Ghana we obtained production data for only a single subdivision Our yield estimates may also be slightly lower due to young planted farms detected by our map that may not be productive yet therefore bringing down the average yield per unit area deforestation rates have fluctuated since 2018 we can directly relate forest loss of over 360,000 ha in protected areas (including classified forests) to cocoa cultivation in Côte d’Ivoire from 2000 to 2020 Given an overall forest loss of 962,000 ha since 2000 cocoa is directly or indirectly responsible for almost 37.4% of forest loss in protected areas we can trace back 26,000 ha of cocoa-driven deforestation in protected areas in Ghana corresponding to 13.5% of the total forest lost in protected areas (193,000 ha) since 2000 we were able to quantify the spatial extent of cocoa plantations within the protected areas such as over 6,400 ha in Mt Péko National Park and over 2,700 ha in Marahoué National Park a World Heritage Site and one of the largest protected areas in Côte d’Ivoire has experienced very little deforestation for cocoa Our map makes it possible to compute further vegetation parameters specifically for regions where cocoa is grown plants that are not mapped as cocoa by our model the computed values can be influenced by shade trees and other vegetation within agroforestry systems This segregation of cocoa and other vegetation allows us to use the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to monitor cocoa health on a large scale with analyses at either the pixel or district level and to find regions where resources could be best used to improve the conditions of cocoa plantations we measured vegetation health in terms of the NDVI This index is based directly on the absorption of photosynthetically active radiation by leaves and the re-emission of near-infrared radiation with too low photon energy Computing NDVI per district using only locations with actual cocoa plantings diminishes biases due to other types of vegetation (a) and allows targeted actions up to the farm level when comparing at the native map resolution (b) The red dot in a indicates the approximate location in b implications and applications of our end-to-end framework and its product We conclude with the potential of our map to increase sustainability along the cocoa supply chain our framework promises a number of advantages utilizing model ensembles in combination with aggregating over multiple satellite images of the same location allows for a confidence map in contrast to binary predictions an end user gains an additional degree of freedom when using our map one can adapt the threshold of classifying cocoa according to one’s needs—for example the confidence map serves as guidance for measurements and improving predictions While scores in the lower and upper ranges can be used to accurately and confidently take plant-specific measurements by decreasing the bias of false positives uncertain predictions can be preferably checked on the ground to improve the model performance initiatives and governments can drastically reduce human resources for on-the-ground surveys and mapping efforts Mapping and protection efforts can be concentrated around and within protected areas inspections on the ground can be focused on highly certain predictions In addition to short-term forest clearance it is possible to correlate long-term primary forest loss with cocoa encroachment in a highly accurate manner We also tuned the confidence threshold on country-wide validation data this results in a highly accurate binary cocoa map that can be used in various downstream tasks—for example to specifically mask out vegetation areas not used for cocoa production to compute cocoa-specific vegetation indices such as the NDVI at the local community level thanks to the map’s high resolution of 10 m Our mapping efforts predicted a total of 60,000 ha of additional cocoa plantations in the Volta region Our findings stress the drastic need for fairer prices and improved government and company policies to support cocoa farmers’ adoption of improved practices This must happen alongside stronger law enforcement to avoid rebound effects and preserve the remaining forests of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana We have developed an end-to-end trainable framework to map cocoa in the world’s largest cocoa-producing countries We have demonstrated the applicability and usefulness of deep learning for automated crop identification with optical satellite imagery the final map relies on multiple image acquisitions for each location to cope with atmospheric disturbances as optical sensors are limited by cloud cover while the map itself can be used to detect cocoa within protected areas it is not yet possible to capture new cocoa plantations on a weekly or monthly update Integrating radar-based observations (in particular synthetic aperture radar) as an additional input for our framework could probably reduce the number of images needed per location ultimately increasing the update rate of our map Combining historical satellite data with our map to detect past and current cocoa expansion rates is also an interesting future application The proposed approach is a generic framework not limited to a specific region and is expected to generalize to new areas Given reference data from new regions of interest the model may be fine-tuned to adapt to local conditions and patterns regions with similar landscape characteristics (for example Cameroon or Nigeria) should only need small additional datasets whereas adapting to countries such as Malaysia Indonesia or Honduras with challenging growing practices (for example high shade tree density or mixed cultivation) will probably require a lot more reference data We believe that our study vindicates automatic analysis of satellite imagery as a tool for large-scale mapping of cocoa and thereby presents a step forward in analysing the cocoa supply chain and its sustainability implications this study also highlights the potential of using satellite imagery to derive the spatial extent of agricultural production in contexts with limited land documentation and therefore opens up opportunities to inform the design and implementation of public and private sustainability initiatives we used publicly available optical satellite imagery to train and apply our predictor Data for both countries were acquired from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission Sentinel-2 images consist of 13 spectral bands ranging from short-wave infrared to visible at a resolution of at most 10 m We discarded bands with a resolution of 60 m and bilinearly upsampled all 20 m spectral bands to 10 m resolution for a total of nine channels that served as input to our neural network To make the model more robust towards atmospheric noise we obtained in each Sentinel-2 grid tile the ten images with the lowest cloud cover within each six-month period over a total observation window of three years between October 2018 and December 2021 the number is smaller due to local cloud cover in some of the images (according to the Sentinel-2 basic cloud mask) such cloudy samples were masked with ‘nodata’ values in a post-processing step we projected and rasterized every ground-truth polygon to the corresponding Sentinel-2 tile randomly chose a patch of 320 m × 320 m (32 pixels × 32 pixels) in which at least 10% of the pixels were labelled and extracted the corresponding patch from a randomly selected Sentinel-2 image That procedure was repeated to generate hundreds of millions of input samples The statistical strength afforded by this massive amount of training data is one reason for the good performance of our framework Independent of the training and validation data we created a unique evaluation protocol by gathering additional test data on the ground we designed a verification campaign by choosing over 2,000 random locations around ten different cities in Côte d’Ivoire in such a way that they overlap neither with the training nor with the validation set Each location was defined by a centre coordinate and an area around that centre point Several teams were sent out to visit these predefined sites they were instructed to walk around the boundary of the area and to report back the estimated percentage of cocoa grown on the site they were asked to note down any other commodity grown within the area—that is an exemplary feedback would be that the area was occupied by “60% cocoa If the majority (>50% of the total area) was cocoa the location was considered as a positive cocoa sample The on-site verification lasted for more than six months the actual cocoa plantings are not geolocated within the polygons (smallholders in general grow multiple crops on their territory); thus we evaluated our map on the farm level and counted a polygon as cocoa if a majority of its pixels fell into that class which enable the network to exploit textural features (that is the (normalized) vegetation height map is included by simply adding it to every channel of the intermediate feature map and the result is fed through two further separable residual blocks to obtain the final feature representation the final output is computed with a single convolutional layer with two 1 × 1 filters whose two-channel output is passed through a sigmoid transformation two positive output values that sum to 1 and can be interpreted as the probabilities for the presence and absence of cocoa Since there are no downsampling operations and padding is applied in all residual blocks and one can directly compare the output to the ground-truth map as the network architecture is fully convolutional it is not fixed to a specific spatial input size and can process image tiles of any size (subject to computing memory) during inference reducing computation time during deployment We optimized the neural network’s weights by minimizing the Dice coefficient On our high-performance computing infrastructure one training run took slightly more than five days Ten replicas of the neural network just described were trained independently on the same dataset with different random initializations and different (random) batches averaging estimates over multiple observations diminishes the influence of faulty classifications due to noisy observations Model ensembling further allowed us to compute CIs on different estimators such as area We thresholded each of the continuous maps generated by the ten independent models and computed an area estimate per model We obtained CIs assuming an underlying t-distribution with nine degrees of freedom as follows: c is the confidence level and tn−1 is the critical value with (n − 1) degrees of freedom but these scattered trees protruding from the lower cocoa plants also provide a distinctive height pattern) Vegetation height is thus an obvious predictive feature simply for its ability to identify high vegetation as not being cocoa It therefore seems reasonable to simplify the learning process and save model capacity by supplying it directly The second (and more essential) reason why we expect the separate tree height estimator to improve the estimates is that it brings in additional information While the vegetation height map is indeed based on the same input it has not been learned from the same output the cocoa mapping pipeline benefits from the additional strong supervision signal of the GEDI LiDAR measurements Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article The cocoa probability map and its thresholded version will be released for download and will be available in the Google Earth Engine. Both maps can be explored interactively in the following Google Earth Engine application: https://nk.users.earthengine.app/view/cocoa-map The code is available at https://github.com/D1noFuzi/cocoamapping/ Supporting Smallholder Farmers for a Sustainable Cocoa Sector: Exploring the Motivations and Role of Farmers in the Effective Implementation of Supply Chain Sustainability in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire (Meridian Institute The effect of supply chain position on zero-deforestation commitments: evidence from the cocoa industry Addressing indirect sourcing in zero deforestation commodity supply chains Sustainable Development for Cocoa Farmers in Ghana (International Growth Centre Demystifying the Cocoa Sector in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire (Royal Tropical Institute Chocolate’s Dark Secret (Mighty Earth, 2017); https://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/chocolates_dark_secret_english_web.pdf The Biodiversity Hotspots (Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, 2022); https://www.cepf.net/our-work/biodiversity-hotspots Reframing Deforestation: Global Analyses and Local Realities—Studies in West Africa (Routledge cocoa migrations and deforestation in West Africa: what does the past tell us about the future Cocoa and Forests Initiative (World Cocoa Foundation, 2021); https://www.worldcocoafoundation.org/initiative/cocoa-forests-initiative/ The role of supply-chain initiatives in reducing deforestation Cocoa crops are destroying the forest reserves of the classified forest of Haut-Sassandra (Ivory Coast) Detecting cocoa plantations in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and their implications on protected areas Country-wide high-resolution vegetation height mapping with Sentinel-2 A review on early forest fire detection systems using optical remote sensing A global inventory of photovoltaic solar energy generating units Mapping oil palm density at country scale: an active learning approach Crop mapping from image time series: deep learning with multi-scale label hierarchies The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation: high-resolution laser ranging of the Earth’s forests and topography Simple and scalable predictive uncertainty estimation using deep ensembles Good practices for estimating area and assessing accuracy of land change The Cocoa Accountability Map (Mighty Earth, 2021); https://www.mightyearth.org/cocoa-accountability/ Interactive Cocoa Farm Map (Cocoa Life, accessed 27 March 2022); https://www.cocoalife.org/in-the-cocoa-origins/interactive-map Ghana National Land Use Map (Ghana Forestry Commission, accessed 25 March 2022); https://ghana-national-landuse.knust.ourecosystem.com/interface/ A model-based approach to estimating forest area Key issues in rigorous accuracy assessment of land cover products Crops and Livestock Products (FAO, accessed 30 March 2022); https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL Regional Cocoa Purchases (COCOBOD, accessed 12 April 2022); https://cocobod.gh/cocoa-purchases The Fairness Gap: Farmer Incomes and Root Cause Solutions to Ending Child Labor in the Cocoa Industry (International Labor Rights Forum Fairtrade Cocoa in Ghana: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead (Sweet Vision Researching the Impact of Increased Cocoa Yields on the Labour Market and Child Labour Risk in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire (ICI The World Lost a Belgium-Sized Area of Primary Rainforests Last Year (World Resources Institute Protected Planet: The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) (UNEP-WCMC and IUCN, accessed 14 April 2022); https://www.protectedplanet.net/en High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest cover change Cocoa farming and primate extirpation inside Cote d’Ivoire’s protected areas Forest reserve encroachment: the case of Tano-Ehuro forest reserve in Western Ghana and means of overcoming forest offenses in Ghana’s forestry sector: the case of the Bibiani forest district Le parc national de la marahoué: de la logique de conservation à la logique de prédation Deforestation is driven by agricultural expansion in Ghana’s forest reserves Agricultural Production—Crops Primary (FAO, accessed 30 March 2022); https://fenixservices.fao.org/faostat/static/documents/QCL/QCL_methodology_e.pdf Land and Natural Resource Governance and Tenure for Enabling Sustainable Cocoa Cultivation in Ghana (USAID Tenure and Global Climate Change Program Spatial validation reveals poor predictive performance of large-scale ecological mapping models Deep residual learning for image recognition In IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (eds Bajcsy Xception: deep learning with depthwise separable convolutions In IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (eds Chellappa Focal dice loss and image dilation for brain tumor segmentation In Deep Learning in Medical Image Analysis and Multimodal Learning for Clinical Decision Support (eds Cardoso V-net: fully convolutional neural networks for volumetric medical image segmentation In 2016 4th International Conference on 3D Vision (3DV) (ed Savarese S.) 565–571 (IEEE Kingma, D. P. & Ba, J. L. Adam: a method for stochastic optimization. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/pdf/1412.6980.pdf%5D (2015) In International Conference on Machine Learning 1321–1330 (2017) Lang, N., Schindler, K. & Wegner, J. D. High carbon stock mapping at large scale with optical satellite imagery and spaceborne lidar. Preprint at arXiv https://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.07431.pdf (2021) Global canopy height regression and uncertainty estimation from GEDI LIDAR waveforms with deep ensembles The Plant List v.1.1 (Royal Botanic Gardens Copernicus Open Access Hub (ESA, accessed 09 May 2023); https://scihub.copernicus.eu/ Download references The project received funding from Barry Callebaut Sourcing AG as part of a Research Project Agreement (N.K.) We thank Barry Callebaut Sourcing AG for realizing the ground campaign together coordinating and conducting the survey on the ground This research was funded through the 2019–2020 BiodivERsA joint call for research proposals under the BiodivClim ERA-Net COFUND programme and with the funding organization of the Swiss National Science Foundation (C.R. We greatly appreciate the open data policies of the ESA Copernicus programme Open access funding provided by Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich Department of Geography and Conservation Research Institute implemented the code and carried out all experiments under the guidance of K.S All authors contributed to the Article and the analyses of the results and reviewed the manuscript Nature Food thanks Thibaud Vantalon and Hannah Kerner for their contribution to the peer review of this work Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00751-8 a shareable link is not currently available for this article Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science Forest loss is perhaps the last thing families across the world think about when they give boxes of chocolate during the holiday season But cocoa – the essential ingredient in chocolate and other consumer products – is in fact a leading driver of deforestation in cocoa-producing countries Although cocoa production continues to expand in Asia two-thirds of the world’s cocoa supply comes from Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana alone West Africa lost 2.3 million hectares of forest to cocoa cultivation Small farmers produce up to 90% of cocoa in these two countries they face challenges of decreasing productivity All these factors undermine their livelihoods – and their ability to adopt new These stark realities in the cocoa sector are precisely why Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, along with more than 20 leading chocolate companies, came together last month to launch the groundbreaking Frameworks for Action for sustainable cocoa at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn These frameworks lay out how Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana will work with the private sector and other stakeholders to accelerate investments in long-term sustainable production of cocoa with an emphasis on “growing more cocoa on less land.” The World Bank, together with the World Cocoa Foundation and Climate Focus, has released a new report to help guide the work of these governments and companies to operationalize the Frameworks for Action at the level of cocoa farmers. The report, entitled “Forest- and Climate -Smart Cocoa in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana: Aligning Stakeholders to Support Smallholders in Deforestation-Free Cocoa” identifies eight priority actions that these governments and the private sector can take to shift cocoa production practices in West Africa toward sustainable management and eliminate deforestation from the cocoa supply chain. “To accelerate the transition toward climate-smart cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana efforts need to be supported by a common vision between governments communities and CSOs,” says Charlotte Streck and responsible investors about the most pressing actions needed to help small cocoa farmers to achieve sustainable livelihoods and mitigate and adapt to climate change.” The eight priority actions for the cocoa sector (below) build on each other and promote: collaboration between governments and supply-chain companies; the construction and delivery of integrated support packages for smallholders; and the mobilization and design of finance 1. Operationalize cocoa sector plans: The Frameworks for Action for Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana can be operationalized through practical company action plans and alignment with government policy 2. Agree on common operational principles and definitions: As a first step to align interests and interventions 3. Establish multi-stakeholder engagement and action platforms: Institutional partnerships are essential to coordinate smallholder support 4. Develop integrated smallholder support packages: Engagement and action platforms can help facilitate the programming of location-specific smallholder support packages 5. Develop a financing strategy: A financing strategy is needed to define the right funding vehicle be it individual partnerships or a dedicated fund to rehabilitate cocoa trees 6. Deliver finance and support to smallholders: Companies and cooperatives with strong links to farmers are well positioned to initiate cocoa tree renovation and rehabilitation programs 7. Monitor impact and link to zero-deforestation agenda: Monitoring and evaluation systems are important tools for programs to grow stronger over time and to eliminate inefficiencies 8. Strengthen governance: Efforts to reduce deforestation in cocoa supply chains can be supported by clarifying and enforcing forest and land use rules The May report makes the business case for moving toward deforestation-free cocoa production and presents a first set of principles for achieving sustainable STAY CURRENT WITH OUR LATEST DATA & INSIGHTS a direct response to dwindling cocoa output in west Africa cocoa futures reached a 44-year price peak due to mounting concerns over reduced supplies from the region The price surge could prove to be a critical moment for cocoa farming and policy in west Africa The cocoa-producing belt of west Africa is responsible for generating over 80% of the total global output Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire contribute more than 60% to the global output Ghana is the second-biggest producer in the world and cocoa is a vital component of the country’s economy The global price spike has led west African governments to increase the guaranteed producer prices to farmers Ghana recently raised the state-guaranteed cocoa price paid to farmers by two thirds The announcement means that Ghana’s cocoa farmers will be paid 20,943 cedis (US$1,837) per tonne for the upcoming 2023-2024 season raised the price cocoa farmers get to 1,500 CFA francs (US$2.50) per kilogram a 25% jump from the previous rate of 1,200 CFA francs This increase is even more significant than Ghana’s when factoring in Cameroon’s single-digit inflation the Cote d'Ivoire government has announced a rise in the producer price As an economics researcher who has extensively studied and written about cocoa production in west Africa I contend that the recent shortages can be harnessed to strengthen the position of cocoa producers This will enable them to address the structural challenges ingrained in the cocoa production value chain Rising production costs have not been recognised in the value of cocoa beans Farmers therefore haven’t been able to earn enough income and this has led to unsustainable farming practices west African countries should use the cocoa shortage as negotiating leverage against multinational corporations to address these structural issues Both Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire must recognise this pivotal moment and frame the current production challenges as deep-seated structural problems requiring solutions Ghana’s cocoa regulator recently indicated that its farmers might not be able to meet some cocoa contract obligations for another season Ghana’s projected cocoa yield for the 2022/23 planting season was the lowest in 13 years falling 24% short of the initial estimates of 850,000 metric tonnes This trend has been repeated across the region with production falling in Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon Reduced output means demand can’t be met and global prices rise The reduction in cocoa output is attributed to short-term and long-term factors Commentators typically emphasise the short-term factors: A number of long-term structural issues have beset cocoa farming in west Africa for decades They shouldn’t be overshadowed by concerns with short-term problems The first is the declining availability of forest land and its connection to increasing production costs depletion of forest land has led farmers to turn to grasslands for replanting cocoa plants and the application of fertilisers and pesticides the plants are highly susceptible to disease All these things result in increased labour costs None of these additional burdens have been incorporated into the pricing for sustainable cocoa production cocoa beans have been undervalued for decades Farmers have become poorer and are exploring alternative sources of livelihood The cost of sustainably cultivating cocoa in grasslands must be reflected in the price that farmers receive Relying solely on market forces will not achieve this the Ghana Cocoa Board announces the official producer price for cocoa beans for the upcoming cocoa season on behalf of the government This official price is based on the anticipated export market price with an understanding in Ghana that farmers should receive approximately 70% of it and consequently the producer price derived from it often falls short of covering the costs of sustainable cocoa cultivation What would it cost for cocoa farmers to cultivate cocoa beans sustainably without contributing to deforestation or resorting to child labour If the market price falls below this cost (which isn’t static) giving rise to many of the problems that plague the industry Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire pioneered the introduction of the “living income differential” – a premium that cocoa buyers would pay on top of the market price to ensure that farmers earned a sustainable income from their produce And it came at a time when these countries had diminished bargaining clout in a saturated market The crisis in the sector puts cocoa producers in a stronger negotiating position Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire could collaborate with other regional countries to negotiate a better position for their cocoa farmers There are many strategies these countries can explore including supply management (such as buffer stocks This article originally appeared in The Conversation on 4 October 2023 And while I’m a fan of beautiful boxes of bon bons a cup of hot chocolate is balm for the soul There’s something so soothing about it on a cold winter day and artisanal coffee shops springing up all over the Upper West Side this seemed like the perfect time to indulge my passion for hot chocolate I set out on a quest to find the best in the area To make hot chocolate or “drinking chocolate,” hot milk or water is added to melted chunks or pieces of chocolate to create a fuller bodied Hot cocoa is typically made with cocoa powder and is a thinner drink that often has a milder flavor While some of the purveyors I visited touted their single-source fair-trade chocolate and most served theirs up with steamed milk the majority that I sampled were basically warm milk with a disappointing lack of chocolate flavor I discovered six that were extremely satisfying including one that elevated the experience to an entirely different plane of chocolate nirvana are the standout hot chocolates/hot cocoas I tasted on the UWS (Note: I focused on beverages made with whole milk but pretty much every place I visited offers alternatives like oat Some also offer flavored varieties and several even offer spiked options.) The Upper West Side outpost of the Paris Baguette chain was my first stop This classic old-school hot cocoa satisfied both my taste buds and my sense of nostalgia The standout hot chocolate from this cozy coffee shop is a concoction of Ghirardelli sweet ground cocoa powder and a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips They were one of the few places to dust their hot chocolate with cocoa powder The final luxurious sips are best enjoyed with a spoon to get every bit of melted chocolate at the bottom of the cup This welcoming new café uses a custom-made mixture to create a classic creamy chocolatey beverage that’s pleasingly full-bodied and flavorful this charming French patisserie serves a rich hot chocolate made from 70% cacao chips It’s medium-bodied and delightfully creamy all the way down to the last sip this creator of iconic chocolate chip cookies (among others) uses fine chocolate in its hot chocolate: Valrhona 61% cacao dark chocolate chunks The result is a flavorful and satisfying cup I could write an ode to this chocolatier’s nectar of the gods Of all the Upper West Side offerings I sampled which they prepare in a mixer and keep warm and gently blending all day long for a downright decadent treat Let us know about your favorite hot chocolate/hot cocoa on the Upper West Side Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Makes me sad yet again that Jacques Torres left our neighborhood– absolute best hot chocolate Agreed! It’s so so delicious. The whipped cream too Now this is my kind of article! As a non-coffee-or-tea-drinker, and a hot chocolate lover, I am always on a quest to find a really good hot chocolate on the Upper West Side. Too often though, a drink which cost me at least $5 goes unfinished on account of being too bland or too sweet or too foamy. There is a particularly disappointing experience to be had at a well-known, and otherwise excellent, bakery on Amsterdam. My personal favorite is at Tarallucci e Vino on 83rd and Amsterdam. Their hot chocolate manages to be both entirely liquid (not too thick and not too foamy) and intensely chocolatey. The best hot chocolate is a powder mix from No Chewing Allowed (Brooklyn). I heat up milk and add the mix and it is the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted. Tastes just like their truffles. And I’m home, cozy and warm. For me what makes hot chocolate noteworthy is less sugar. I had a cup 2 weeks ago at Wollman Rink and it tasted like sugar water with some cocoa powder. Have to admit it gave me a burst of energy to go a few extra rounds of skating but I did not like the taste. Try the hot chocolate at Hungarian Pastry Shop. It is unsweetened so just remember to ask for at least a little sugar. If you ask for whipped cream, that IS sweetened and absolutely delicious mixed into the hot chocolate. I’m really surprised that Hungarian didn’t make your list!!! Maybe you didn’t venture that far uptown? Theirs is way more like hot chocolate the way hot chocolate ‘used to be’, and we are so fortunate that this establishment still exists! Mast on Columbus and 77 make excellent not-too-sweet hot chocolate and in two sizes including a perfect $2 mini (about 4 oz) Yes and Yes….thank you for the warm (pun intended) welcome to the neighborhood. I know we just opened but it’s a little know fact that Wafels & Dinges probably has the best hot cocoa in town – plus we do more of it than there I say any of the names on this list. Meg – you should come by and try! That’s awesome! I will thank you for being quite neighborly I have always been a Le Pain Quotidien for my. Almost daily hot chocolate (when I gave up coca-cola) In the world of Hot Cocoa drinks, there’s the amateurs, and then there’s the people who are very serious about “Belgian” Hot Cocoa. Thank you Meg for doing the leg work so the rest of us can just reap the benefits. You got me thirsty! Probably not fancy enough for everyone here but I am partial to Dunkin hot chocolate. Kind of like Kraft Mac and Cheese – the simplest is the best. A packet of Swiss Miss from A&P or Pioneer was always good enough for me. Sarabeth Kitchen has one of the best Hot Chocolate. They sell it in a carton and it has the best texture as it mixes pellets and powder. I will sample some of the other ones, but Patis’s is not as good as Sarabeth’s I will try the other ones Peaky Barista hot cocoa was a rip off when I was there. It was weak, not even as good as the Swiss Miss I make at home! This is the kind of serious investigative reporting I appreciate. Thank you Meg for doing all the difficult research so the rest of us can benefit. Good morning: I love this article on Hot Chocolate. I used to work near a small cafe in midtown that served a beverage made of espresso and hot chocolate. It was life changing. I always pop some cafe bustelo espresso powder in my hot chocolate now! By the way, I’d love to see a similar article but about cheesecake. Please assign your best reporter 😆 Thank you Meg. This is the kind of serious investigative reporting that the rest of us will benefit from. I appreciate all the difficult work that went into it and look forward to trying out your recommendations. Amorino Gelato on Amsterdam and 80th for European hot chocolate. Similar to Jacques Torres Now I’m craving hot chocolate! Thanks for another great piece, Meg! Try 7-11 @ Amsterdam Ave @ 100th,St They have 2 kinds of hot chocolate: one more chocolaty than the other. Plus you get to add as much cream , milk , sugar varieties to your taste as they are self service. The large is about $3.00. They are the best, more cost effective for families with kids, senior citizens and those of us who have a taste for a good cup of hot chocolate and don’t want to necessarily break the bank. Favorite place? My own abode. Nothing beats Godiva’s dark chocolate hot cocoa. 100% Flowers on the Park– not too sweet or thick. PERFECT! The best dark hot chocolate is at Angelina’s on 6th Avenue, an outlet from Paris. NOW I WANT A HOT CHOCOLATE – WHO DELIVERS – Yum yum yum this was a delicious article!!!!!!! Great article, Meg. But man, those comments! Nobody around here can agree on anything. It’s why I love the Upper West Side, it’s a hotbed of debate. I have been on this question two years. The best hot chocolate on the UWS is 1. Flowers on Park, 2. Edgars, 3. Mamaan Just yesterday (2/14/23) discovered phenomenaly thick, rich and delicious hot chocolate at a surprising place: Brooklyn Diner on W 57th. Apparently brand new there, and worth a visit. Deep, dark, rich ganache (not sure of origin chocolate – maybe Valhrona) blended, served in tall glass with a large scoop (!) of dense freshly made whipped cream on top (I initially thought it was ice cream). Served to drink through a wide straw. Worth sharing….. and a return visit. © 2025 West Side Rag | All rights reserved. © 2025 West Side Rag | All rights reserved. A more expensive Easter in the West reflects a precipitous situation for the world’s cocoa producers, writes Maxwell Akalaare Adombila Surveying the stripped landscape of her farm – dotted with pools of cyanide-tainted, tea-coloured wastewater left by illegal gold miners – is enough to make Janet Gyamfi break down Only last year, the 70-acre plot in western Ghana was covered with nearly 6,000 cocoa trees “This farm was my only means of survival,” the 52-year-old divorcee says Long the world’s undisputed cocoa powerhouses accounting for over 60 per cent of the global supply Ghana and its west African neighbour Ivory Coast are both facing catastrophic harvests this season Expectations of a shortage of cocoa beans – the raw material for chocolate – have seen New York cocoa futures more than double this year alone They have hit fresh record highs almost daily in an unprecedented trend that shows little sign of abating experts and industry insiders told Reuters that a perfect storm of rampant illegal gold mining Ghana’s cocoa marketing board Cocobod estimates that 590,000 hectares of plantations have been infected with swollen shoot “Production is in long-term decline,” says Steve Wateridge a cocoa expert with Tropical Research Services “We wouldn’t get the lowest crop for 20 years in Ghana and the lowest for eight years in Ivory Coast if we hadn’t reached a tipping point.” It’s an imbroglio with no easy fixes that has shocked the world’s markets and could spell the beginning of the end of west Africa’s cocoa supremacy That may open the door for ascendant producers Shoppers buying Easter confectionery in the United States are discovering that chocolate on store shelves is more than 10 per cent more expensive than a year ago according to data from research firm NielsenIQ Since chocolate makers tend to hedge cocoa purchases months in advance, analysts say the disastrous crops in west Africa will only really hit consumers later this year. “The kind of chocolate bar that we’re used to eating, that’s going to become a luxury,” says Tedd George, an Africa-focused commodities expert with Kleos Advisory. “It will be available, but it’s going to be twice as expensive.” Across Ghana, cocoa plantations are ceding ground to gold miners, known locally as galamsey. While some plantation takeovers are indeed violent, five farmers and community leaders told Reuters that more and more of them are becoming willing sellers. With west Africa struggling, current sky-high global prices will be an attractive incentive for farmers to plant more cocoa in other tropical regions, notably Latin America. Both Wateridge and Antonie Fountain, of the cocoa industry watchdog Voice Network, are forecasting that Ecuador will now overtake Ghana as the world’s second-biggest cocoa producer by 2027. Brazil and Peru could also step up. Filling the supply void will take time, however, and in the meantime, chocolate lovers should expect to feel the pinch. But the real victims, say activists like Fountain, are the small-time growers in Ivory Coast and Ghana, who have few options as they watch their income evaporate. “The situation for farmers in west Africa is disastrous,” says Fountain. “It is just absolutely devastating.” Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Janet Gyamfi, 52, a cocoa farmer in Ghana, weeps at her plantation which was destroyed by illegal gold mining The EU launched the Sustainable Cocoa Initiative in 2020 to improve the sustainability of the cocoa supply chain with countries of West Africa The objectives of the Sustainable Cocoa Initiative are to: The Initiative contributes to the achievement of UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) SDG 12 'Responsible consumption and production' SDG 15 'Life on land' and SDG 17 'Partnerships for the Goals' One of the key pillars of the initiative is an inclusive multistakeholder dialogue These roundtables bring together key EU stakeholders including representatives of Member States the cocoa and chocolate industry and civil society organisations as well as representatives of producer countries; Côte d'Ivoire These commitments were endorsed at political level by producer countries and the cocoa sector and their implementation will be closely monitored by the European Commission Meeting reports The EU is committed to supporting countries in the transformation of the sector for sustainable cocoa production and trade it has allocated €25 million in budgetary support and technical assistance in Côte d’Ivoire Additional resources from the EU budget for 2021-2027 also support sustainable cocoa. EU Commission resources, together with EU Member States' resources (ongoing and future programmes), are contributing to ambitious Team Europe Initiatives and Cameroon produce more than 70% of world cocoa Cocoa and derivate products are the main commodity these countries export to the EU In 2021, the EU imported around €4.5 billion worth of cocoa from these origin countries (Source: Comext). Efforts to improve the sustainability of this commodity is therefore of great importance. In this regard, the EU trade agreements contribute to a more sustainable trade policy, as recently laid down in the Trade Policy Review in 2021 Free trade agreements are in place between the EU and the three main cocoa producing countries; Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Cameroon. These 'Economic Partnership Agreements' (EPAs) are special trade agreements covering trade in goods and sustainable development They grant to partner countries duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market EPAs also provide legal certainty and platforms for regulatory and political dialogue between parties in the context of the EPA Committees The sustainability of cocoa supply chain and shared efforts for the advancement of the Roadmap is systematically on the agenda of these meetings which offer an additional platform for cooperation between the EU and partner countries In the context of the European Commission's political priorities including the European Green Deal and a zero-tolerance approach to child labour the Commission initiated a dialogue in support of a sustainable cocoa sector It built upon the initiative of the two main producing countries Considering the role of the EU as a policy and global standard setter the objective of the Initiative is to support the elimination of child labour and child trafficking and to ensure a living income for cocoa farmers The Sustainable Cocoa Initiative builds on Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana’s joint initiative of June 2019 for a Living Income Differential a premium price for cocoa farmers and to trigger further progress on key sustainability issues in the cocoa sector in the longer term Total estimated cost: €28 400 000: of which EDF contribution €25 000 000 (€8 000 000 for budget support and €17 000 000 for project modality) and German cooperation (BmZ) contribution €3 400 000 EU trade relations with West Africa EU trade relations with Central Africa Sustainable Cocoa Initiative - Information brochure EUDR country factsheets Cocoa Talks 2022 Factsheet Cocoa Talks Roundtables Reports Proposal for an EU regulation on deforestation-free products Proposal for an EU regulation on prohibiting products made with forced labour Proposal for a directive on corporate sustainability due diligence Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and the cocoa sector have today agreed to step up work on making cocoa more sustainable Commissioner for International Partnerships Ivory Coast and Ghana to strengthen the EU's partnership with these key regional partners under the Global Gateway strategy The European Union will contribute €25 million to enhance the economic social and environmental sustainability of cocoa production in Côte d'Ivoire Search for a publication Search for a meeting © Shutterstock/Delali Adogla-Bessa | Farmers dry cocoa beans in Kunsu Chocolate-loving consumers around the globe are being hit by higher cocoa prices due in part to the climate crisis Extreme weather and changing climate patterns have upended crop harvests which are expected to fall short for the third year in a row tightening global supplies and raising prices the key ingredient for making the beloved sweets shot up by 136% between July 2022 and February 2024 according to UNCTAD commodities price monitoring The price per tonne on the futures market crossed $10,000 for the first time ever on 26 March The hike has filtered through to consumers worldwide already reeling under inflation and a generational cost-of-living crisis Cacao trees grow close to the equator and are sensitive to changes in weather characterized by warmer surface temperatures in parts of the Pacific Ocean has caused hotter weather and shifting rainfall patterns which produces the bulk of global cocoa supplies crops are increasingly under threat from heatwaves intense rains and other climate-related risks This has negatively impacted thousands of smallholder producers excessive rainfall in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire during the fourth quarter of 2023 have led to a flare-up of swollen shoot virus and black pod disease – a condition that causes cocoa pods to rot and harden The repercussions are global given that the two countries produced 58% of the world’s cocoa between 2022 and 2023 The International Cocoa Organization expects a global shortfall of about 374,000 tonnes for the 2023-2024 season compared to 74,000 tonnes last season supply-side shocks result in price spikes,” says UNCTAD senior economist Rodrigo Carcamo The cocoa price hike is just one example of how climate change has far-reaching impacts on society and the economy. “It shows the importance for all consumers around the world that climate change is tackled and that climate targets and climate change mitigation measures like nationally determined contributions are met,” Mr Catch up on the latest news and original reporting produced by The Hustle team Bite-size stories from our daily newsletter Original reporting from our Sunday newsletter Browse our collection of educational shows and videos on YouTube Subscribe for little revelations across business and tech When it comes to brainstorming business ideas Everything you need to know about building your business on HubSpot Learn marketing strategies and skills straight from the HubSpot experts HubSpot Podcast Network is the destination for business professionals who seek the best education on how to grow a business and informative takes on business and tech news hosts Sam Parr and Shaan Puri explore new business ideas based on trends and opportunities in the market Redefining what success means and how you can find more joy Another Bite breaks down the latest and greatest pitches from Shark Tank Build your business for far and fast success HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar and Zapier CMO Kieran Flanagan share what's happening now in marketing and what's ahead All of HubSpot's marketing, sales CRM, customer service, CMS, and operations software on one platform. See pricing In a small town near the border of the Osun and Ondo states of Nigeria It’s cocoa — one of the most valuable crops in the world in recent months. As Baba’s eyes trail the truck into the distance “That is 33 million naira crawling on,” he says cocoa futures reached 12k per kilogram or 12m naira per metric ton (~$9.6k) more than 3x its price in the last quarter of 2023 and nearly 5x more than in the last quarter of 2022. North Americans and Europeans noticed the uptick around Easter, when the prices of popular chocolate products were up as much as 50%. Some analysts suggest chocolate may end up a luxury product as sellers like Hershey and Mondelez raise prices where the majority of the globe’s cocoa is grown the higher prices have been a mixed blessing hoping the record prices will continue for this fall’s harvest. Baba talks about the price increase like it was bound to happen In 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to roughly half of Europe’s fertilizer production going dormant Fertilizers became cost-prohibitive to most West African farmers El Niño brought heavy rainfall followed by heat and drought Cacao trees grow fruits called pods that are filled with cocoa seeds (or beans) that can be processed into chocolate it became clear farmers had far fewer crops than normal Compared to the originally predicted output for the 2023-24 season In Côte d’Ivoire, the first quarter output this year was 29% lower than the same period in 2023 he ended up yielding two metric tons of cocoa last year cocoa sold at an estimated 50% more than it had the year before in Nigeria but the increase wasn’t enough to protect Baba from the country’s severe inflation and economic malaise By the time Baba was done tending to expenses and getting ready for a new growing season as the soaring chocolate prices in Europe and the US didn’t match what farmers saw throughout West Africa Baba stands near one of the seedling clusters in the nursery near his farm Olowolagba Rafiu has paid an annual rent of 150k naira (~$120) on three hectares of farmland Baba typically pays a tax of 30k naira on his land; this year he’ll be paying over 100k naira theft got so bad that farmers in some communities set up security task forces to prevent pods from being stolen directly on trees in the forests “When it became hard to steal pods directly from the tree they started stealing beans left outside to dry,” says John Achidi “You get to farm in the morning and find all your trees stripped bare.” as West African farmers plan for the fall 2024 harvest In Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana the government is planning to increase farmgate prices by as much as 50% And Nigerian farmers are trying to cash in while cocoa prices are still inflated Rafiu invested in fertilizers for parts of his farms that he neglected when prices were high a 28-year-old farmer who works for a cooperative cocoa farm in Abeokuta Nigeria says the farm has over 30k seedlings in the nursery up from the 10k they usually average per year Achidi says he’s planning to farm a new parcel of land starting next season Taiwo tends to newly planted seedlings in the nursery area of his co-op farm says the increased productivity will reduce scarcity and prices albeit to levels still higher than most farmers are accustomed to “There’s no way you go from 12k back to 3k per kilogram but things will come to around 5k per kilogram by the end of this year,” he says There’s also a question of how much cocoa West African farmers will be able to produce in the future The crop is native to Latin America but was introduced into the region from colonists becoming a significant cash crop in the mid-20th century Although cocoa grows particularly well in the forests of West Africa studies show that climate change and environmental damage have caused the West African forest regions to endure weaker rains and longer dry seasons “We sometimes forget that cocoa is not native to West Africa; it’s not hardy like our indigenous crops,” Abosede says “[If there’s] small discomfort… production plunges by a ridiculously wide margin.” Baba has worked through record heat and spasmodic He would have sprayed to prevent moss during the periods of high rain but the herbicide he needs has increased from ~40k naira per gallon in 2018 to over 250k naira the only cacao plants fruiting were the ones on the most fertile land at the edge of the rivers and water beds Pods fruiting on one of Baba’s cacao trees the record-setting prices for cocoa have imbued him with optimism he splurged by buying fertilizer and herbicide and investing in new seedlings to replace dead trees and expand the farm Baba made a sharp turn into an almost invisible trail by the roadside “Of all the things you can plant in this world,” he says Get the 5-minute newsletter keeping 2M+ innovators in the loop Checkout Trends.co to access exclusive research and connect with business builders from around the globe Not using HubSpot yet Get the 5-minute news brief keeping 2.5M+ innovators in the loop ← → How can you save the last rainforests from rampant deforestation in one of Africa’s most biodiverse countries A crackdown on those responsible — in this case It is unveiling a plan instead to remove protection from most of its remaining forests and hand them over to the world’s chocolate traders few countries have lost rainforests as fast as the Ivory Coast More than 80 percent of its forests are gone most following an illegal invasion by as many as a million landless people into national parks and other supposedly protected forests The Marahoue National Park alone has 30,000 illegal inhabitants The invaders are growing cocoa to supply the global chocolate business The Ivory Coast, a West African country the size of New Mexico, produces more than a third of the world’s cocoa. The crop contributes around a tenth of the nation’s GDP. But around 40 percent of the country’s cocoa crop — more than a tenth of the world’s chocolate bars — is grown illegally in the country’s national parks and 230 supposedly protected government-owned forests, known as forêts classée, says Etelle Higonnet of Mighty Earth a United States-based environmental group active in cataloging the footprint of key global commodities Wildlife, especially forest elephants and chimpanzees, have suffered badly. The forests form part of the West African Guinea Forests But Bitty found that 13 of the 23 protected forests he surveyed no longer had any primates Pressure has been growing on the government to act rather than redoubling its efforts to keep cocoa growers out of its protected forests the government plans to remove the largely ineffectual legal protection from thousands of square miles of wrecked rainforests and convert them into agro-forestry reserves to be run by international chocolate manufacturers The stated aim is to protect other forests by improving cocoa productivity in already deforested areas But the plan will at a stroke legalize large-scale deforestation and it appears to be rewarding the perpetrators of the forests’ destruction The initiative was approved by ministers in the Ivory Coast earlier this month It is expected to be approved by the country’s Parliament in April a trade organization that has helped mastermind the plan Most of the cocoa in the Ivory Coast is grown by small farmers Many farmers are migrants who sought refuge in the forests during droughts to the north in Mali and Burkina Faso in the 1970s and 1980s and during the Ivory Coast’s civil war from 2002 to 2004 The farmers are caught in an exploitative and corrupt system of cocoa trading and land appropriation she alleges that the government agencies charged with protecting the forests are more interested in collecting bribes than safeguarding woodlands A senior advisor in the office of Ivory Coast’s President did not respond to Yale Environment 360’s questions about corruption and bribery in the forest protection services or to claims that the government had not consulted communities about changing the status of the forests they live in This mire of illegality supplies a highly centralized global cocoa trade A dozen companies buy 85 percent of the cocoa harvest two-thirds of which comes from just two countries: the Ivory Coast and neighboring Ghana “Very few international companies directly source from protected areas,” says Scobey As environmentalists have highlighted the scale of deforestation to make the world’s chocolate in recent years, cocoa companies have scrambled to respond. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in late 2017, leading companies publicly signed a “joint framework for action,” committing them to work with governments to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains. Thirty-two companies have now signed up by restoring the minority of currently protected forests that are not handed over to the cocoa traders Conflicting Data: How fast is the world losing its forests? Read more But 15 months on, deforestation has not stopped, says Higonnet, who recently toured the region. The promised reforms are behind schedule. “Farmers who engage in deforestation for cocoa are still able to openly sell their cocoa without repercussions,” she said in a November report the Ivory Coast government has promised to zone the protected forests Still-forested areas and all national parks will be fully protected and all inhabitants moved out A middle category of forest will be gradually restored The more heavily degraded areas — which make up the vast majority of once-forested land — will be reclassified from protected forêts classée to Sustainable Management Agroforestry Concessions The changes are being enacted under a new forest code which was approved by ministers earlier this month The government will then issue operational guidelines to “spell out what companies can do” in their territories Nobody knows how the final rules will look but the government says the agroforestry concessions will allow “environmentally friendly” agricultural activities such as “shaded agriculture,” as well as grazing Shaded agriculture involves growing cocoa trees that can prosper inside a forest canopy But there could be pressure instead to focus corporate investment on intensifying existing full-sun farming Some researchers point to the often pitifully low yields of many small cocoa farms, which help keep farmers in extreme poverty. One study found that the worst 25 percent of them had yields only a quarter of those of the best, with much of the difference often caused by pests and diseases. Scobey says the cocoa industry expects most farmers in heavily degraded areas “will stay there and participate in agroforestry,” and that cocoa buyers will develop partnerships with local communities But outside the agroforestry zones, the plan is for mass expulsions to protect remaining forests. Industry leaders recognize that expelling cocoa farmers from protected forests without offering them alternative livelihoods is pointless. Most will simply return. A working group is expected to advise the government on acceptable international practices on resettlement “We are talking to the World Bank and others about finance.” But Higonnet and groups like Human Rights Watch have documented numerous examples of brutal government evictions of communities from the national parks of the Ivory Coast people are thrown out of their homes without notice The corporate plans depend on the government producing maps of its protected areas and data on how much forest they contain A December 2018 deadline for completing that passed without result It’s not just publicity that companies may fear called for the European Union to establish “binding regulations” on the sustainable production of cocoa sold into Europe covering everything from deforestation to child labor are more cautious about embracing a corporate takeover president of the Ivorian Observatory for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources a civil society organization consulted on the proposals says: “There is a great risk that the private sector industrial actors put their economic interests above the restoration of forest cover.” civil society organizations complained that communities were not being consulted about which protected forests should be turned over to agroforestry the groups fear that forêts classée that still contain substantial biodiversity are being scheduled for conversion The Rosewood Trail: An illicit trail from forest to furniture. Read more is not just about the Ivory Coast or the cocoa business Removing a protected designation from forests Other nations such as Indonesia could decide to simply lower the protections on their forests I can imagine [President Jair] Bolsonaro in Brazil also having a field day [delisting] protected areas.” a Brussels-based organization that defends the rights of forest communities and is working with groups representing small-scale cocoa growers in the Ivory Coast Never miss an article. Subscribe to the E360 Newsletter → Support local journalism. Unlock unlimited digital access to floridatoday.com Click here and subscribe today. Beginning Jan. 17, Brightline's new commuter trains will begin rolling every day from West Palm Beach across Brevard County to Frontenac — but they won't be carrying passengers yet these "qualifying trains" will familiarize Brightline train operators with the 130-mile Florida East Coast Railway corridor between Cocoa and West Palm Beach “This is when we're actually training the locomotive engineers and train conductors to learn the territory no passengers," Brightline spokesperson Katie Mitzner said "And the top speeds will be 60 miles an hour which is the top speed for freight (trains) So we will be operating at freight speeds," Mitzner said Crews have completed more than 70% of Brightline’s $2.7 billion higher-speed rail extension from West Palm Beach to Orlando International Airport Trains from South Florida will follow the north-south FEC corridor — which is being double-tracked — to Cocoa where they will turn west along a new set of tracks paralleling the Beachline Expressway Hope for higher-speed train service : Brightline planning 320-mile Florida passenger rail route from Miami to Tampa by 2028 High-tech locomotive: Brightline trains for Orlando service roll off production line in California Brightline is targeting substantial completion of the Orlando extension by year's end with passenger service starting in early 2023 A future Cocoa station remains in the discussion stages The first set of red-and-yellow, diesel-electric trains for the future Orlando route rolled off the assembly line in September at a Siemens Mobility rail-manufacturing plant in Sacramento Brightline officials expect to operate one Frontenac-West Palm Beach round-trip qualifying train per day through 2022 Frontenac is a small unincorporated community north of Cocoa “This will be a train with two locomotives — one on each end — and four passenger cars It will follow behind a northbound (FEC) train from West Palm all the way up to Frontenac which is about a three-hour ride," Mitzner said We will switch which locomotive we're driving in And then we'll follow a southbound train back down to West Palm Beach," she said Mitzner said Brightline qualifying trains will travel 3 to 4 miles behind the FEC trains Brightline officials listed safety tips for motorists and pedestrians: It is dangerous and illegal to drive or walk around crossing gates when they are down. Remain alert and aware when near railroad tracks remembering that trains operate in both directions.Only cross tracks at a railroad crossing and never walk alongside the tracks.Never stop on the tracks.“This is exciting This is a critical step for us to be able to move forward in getting to Orlando," Mitzner said Road closed ahead : Brightline road closures financially hammering some downtown Melbourne small businesses Fly-under tunnel plans: Brightline building 600-foot-long tunnel that will lead trains beneath State Road 528 Once passenger service launches next year, Brightline trains will travel at 79 to 110 mph in Brevard, Mike Cegelis Brightline executive vice president of infrastructure said during a Melbourne Regional Chamber speech in October Cegelis said it should take roughly 25 seconds for the gate to go down and Brightline's train to whiz by. Trains should take a little more than three hours to travel between Orlando and Miami and one-way tickets should cost about $100, Cegelis said More than 1,300 workers have worked 4.7 million man-hours on Brightline's expansion which includes 156 rail crossings between Cocoa and West Palm Beach. More than half have been upgraded with safety improvements with the remainder slated for completion this year Cocoa: Peachtree Street will remain closed through 7 p.m. Thursday Rockledge: Barnes Boulevard will close from 7 a.m. Tuesday until 7 p.m. Jan. 21 Rockledge: Ansin Road will close from 7 a.m. Jan. 17 until 7 p.m. Jan. 25 Melbourne: Aurora Road will close from 7 a.m. Jan. 18 until 7 p.m. Jan. 30 To sign up for Brightline text-alert updates on railroad crossing work Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1 Support local journalism. 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See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times. 16-Feb-2024 Last updated on 16-Feb-2024 at 15:20 GMT One of the themes of Amsterdam Cocoa Week was ‘scanning the room,’ a kind of well-being exercise to check in with fellow attendees, to see who was here, who was not, who should be, was everyone OK, etc. Had this kind of exercise been performed when the WCF PM last convened in October 2022, then the absence of Koné and Aidoo would have been noted as the two regulators boycotted the event due to an ongoing row with the chocolate industry on farmer income. It was left to the diplomatic Michel Arrion, chief executive of the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) and moderator of this panel, to smooth the way back to more cordial discussions with the two heads of the most prominent cocoa regulators in the world. He reminded attendees that they account for two-thirds of all global production and announced how pleased he was to welcome the two cocoa heavyweights back onto the sofa. I've always said that we have a responsibility to cover the market's needs. We feel a shared responsibility. So, we will take steps to bring the necessary supplies to the market -- Yves Brahima Koné, Cote d’Ivoire’s Coffee & Cocoa Council director general, Arrion began with the burning question in the room - the depleted global cocoa production levels and low bean exports from both countries over the past 18 months or so. Climate change and the environment were factors, but were there other mitigating factors for the shortfall in outputs? Aidoo said that the deficit in Ghana has undoubtedly been influenced by climate change and the El Nino effect, particularly in the last three years. “Cocoa is very responsive or sensitive to extreme weather conditions. When we have excessive rainfall, production goes up. When we have excessive dryness and drought, production goes down. And that's what has happened in the last three years. “The previous two years, we had severe dryness in Ghana, affecting our production from around 800,000 metric tonnes to approximately 600,000 metric tonnes. “Last year, we had excessive rain again, and trees responded to that because when the soil is waterlogged, there’s no aeration around the roots, so nutrients cannot be well absorbed.” He said it is a problem that farmers in his country are going to have to live with for a long time – along with the problem of cocoa swollen shoot virus (CSSV) disease, which has also devastated swathes of land, causing the country to lose almost over 500,000 hectares of productivity. COCOBOD invests significant sums of money to solve the problem as no individual farmer can tackle it. Koné said it was similar in neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire: “Since September 2022, we've given our forecasts and stated that production would be 20-25% down on last year's campaign. We haven't changed. I think the conditions are known … climate change and the aging of plantations, in general. “I've been looking after the cocoa industry in Côte d'Ivoire for nearly seven years. As a major cocoa producer, I've always said that we have a responsibility to cover the market's needs. We feel a shared responsibility. So, we will take steps to bring the necessary supplies to the market. As the regulator responsible for production issues simultaneously, we will do what we can to provide the appropriate answers to all the issues that fall within our remit.” Koné announced he has called for a meeting in Abidjan with agroforestry researchers and others to examine the issues. Aidoo also stressed that the issue isn't the farmer's alone responsibility. They are taking all the risks but receiving little of the rewards. “This dichotomy between the bean and the bar ought to be addressed, and it can only be addressed when we begin to see the programme as not an individual programme but a collective one." We've been speaking about living income for more than 20 years, and the farmers have still not seen one -- Joseph Boahen Aidoo, CEO of the Ghana Cocoa Board He said the other aspect has to do with farmers' living income, which is also affecting the production dynamics that the industry is currently experiencing. “If it is not well addressed, there cannot be sustainable production,” he warned. He also said the new (and high) price of cocoa has not yet been reflected in farmers’ income, “we've been speaking about living income for more than 20 years, and the farmers have still not seen one.” Koné said that if prices fall people abandon their farmer. “With cocoa prices today, it's clear that it's imperative to encourage small farmers.” He described himself as “an old hand at cocoa, and I don't think many in the room are as old as I am. When, at one point, we talked about the problems of quotas, it was to protect the interests of both the consumer and the producer. But it didn't work … because some market players thought they were smarter than others. The main function of the International Cocoa Organisation was broken. It was your role to regulate the market.” Aidoo said he thought that the EU regulation was inevitable and necessary. “We produce responsibly. But the point is that we are talking about smallholder farmers when it comes to cocoa production, especially those of us from West Africa. “They cannot produce polygon maps and data. There's no way these farmers will be able to do that. So, it brings responsibility to the government to take that on board. We've had a long discussion with EU reps on this matter because, again, the same principle … the EU is concerned about deforestation … the EU is concerned about child labour and environmental issues. Still, the EU did not factor in the cost, so who pays? "In Ghana, we have come up with a national traceability system. Of course, private companies had their own individual traceability system, but these were silos, each doing his own thing. In Ghana, you are talking about 790,000 farmers.” He said that, at best, private organizations have only mapped around 200,000 farmers. “So COCOBOD and the government had to step in. Therefore, we've developed the Ghana traceability system, which is national and universal for Ghana. We're about 80% complete, and hopefully, by October, we should have finished, but we have spent a fortune already, and we still have to spend a little bit more to complete it.” He said that as this regulation is imposing an additional burden on production, the markets will have to pay, one way or another. The sweet spot: 100% indulgence with cost-effective natural confectionery ingredientsPaid for and content provided by Avebe High temperatures in February affected millions of people and put further pressure on chocolate prices A searing heatwave that struck west Africa in February was made 4C hotter and 10 times more likely by human-caused global heating The heat affected millions of people but the number of early deaths or cases of illness are unknown The region is the world’s largest exporter of cocoa and farmers said the heat weakened their trees which were already damaged from extreme rainfall in December have soared in recent years due to climate-related damage to the crops and the latest heatwave adds further pressure by the World Weather Attribution group of scientists found that the heatwave would have happened less than once a century in a world without climate change with an average of 1.2C of global heating over the last four years If emissions from burning fossil fuels are not rapidly reduced and global temperatures rise to 2C above pre-industrial levels such heatwaves will occur every other year The most severe heat occurred from 11 to 15 February with temperatures peaking above 40C and averaging 36C making it harder for people to cool down by sweating a measure combining temperature and humidity to reflect how heat feels “That is very dangerous for the human body,” said Izidine Pinto of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute said: “The February heatwave happened early in the year meaning many people wouldn’t have been acclimatised to the heat With every fraction of a degree of global warming heatwaves like this will become even hotter.” Globally, this February was the hottest February ever recorded the ninth month in a row that such a record has been broken and the return of the El Niño phenomenon have driven the high temperatures Meteorological organisations in Nigeria and Ghana provided advance warnings about the heat but many of the other countries affected have not carried out planning for dangerous heat “Many people do not appreciate the dangers of heat [but high temperatures] are silent killers,” said Maja Vahlberg of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre “They can be incredibly deadly for the elderly people with existing health conditions and outdoor workers Roughly half of the west African population also lives in informal housing rendering millions of people highly vulnerable to extreme heat.” “There was probably an impact from the heat because it also increased evaporation and left the crops without moisture in the soil,” Pinto said. Free weekly newsletterThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit in the UK said: “Farmers in west Africa who grow the main ingredient of the Easter eggs many of us are looking forward to are struggling in the face of both extreme heat and rainfall Wealthy nations like the UK can provide support to developing countries [but] ultimately we have to reach net zero emissions There are limits to the conditions in which crops can grow.” The UN has estimated that the cost of adaptation to the climate crisis for developing countries is between $215bn and $387bn The global community delivered just $21bn in 2021 The heatwave coincided with the Africa Cup of Nations held in Ivory Coast where players were given extra cooling breaks during games to protect their health The region studied was in southern west Africa