The price of chocolate bars has shot up across the world over the past year, meaning they can feel like a luxury – yet West Africa’s cocoa farmers have not been reaping the benefit. In fact, many are in a desperate state as they have not been paid for months.
“My husband fell sick, and I couldn’t get money to take him to the hospital. So he diedat home,” 52-year-old Ghanaian cocoa farmer Akosua Frimpong told the BBC.
Following a surge in the cost of cocoa – the main ingredient of chocolate – in 2024, prices have since crashed.
Much of the world’s cocoa is produced in Ghana and Ivory Coast, where state regulators set the price a year in advance. The recent collapse in prices has made their beans around 40% more expensive than international traders are willing to pay.
Prices have fallen for a variety of reasons, partly because a good harvest around the world came at a time of lower demand. Because of the previous high prices, chocolate bars have become smaller and chocolate makers have been using less cocoa.
The knock-on effect should mean that chocolate bars will eventually be less expensive, but it has left the cocoa industry in Ghana and Ivory Coast in a mess.
