A Chocolate Shortage?
October 19, 2006 by admin
Filed under Chocolate Products
Say it isn’t so! Start hording your chocolate now because there could be a shortage of chocolate in the world coming soon. Cocoa farmers in the Ivory Coast went on strike on October 16th.
So what, you say? Let’s take a closer look at this. The Ivory Coast (or Cote d’Ivoire for you linguistic types) is a tiny African nation. Look on a map. You’ll find it on the west coast of Africa nestled between Ghana and Liberia. It is only about the size of the state of New Mexico. Why would this be a big deal?
Well, it is a big deal because the Ivory Coast produces 40% of the world’s cocoa bean crop. That’s a lot of chocolate.
The farmers there have been told to hold on to their crops to protest low retail prices. They want 57 cents per pound but it is currently only 40 cents per pound. While that seems like a large gap, the so-called “experts” are saying it is unlikely the strike will last long enough to truly affect the amount of chocolate in the world. Thank goodness!
