Bitter Chocolate

Ivorian Cocoa Flows Again

Michael — Tue, 17 May 2011 16:58:58 +0000

Just a week ago, the first cargo ship left the port of San Pedro laden with cocoa. The chocolate industry can breathe easier again and things, at least related to cocoa, are returning to normal again. That’s good news for cocoa farmers. When the embargo was put in place, the beans already sold to traders [...]

Is It Imperialism?

Michael — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:51:05 +0000

After almost six months, the saga of the Ivorian ill-fated election is finally over. Yesterday, April 11, Laurent Gbagbo was arrested and his decade-long reign is over. There is disagreement as to whether he was arrested by the forces supporting Ouattara or by French forces. The French, the UN and Ouattara deny it, the Gbagbo [...]

Some Background to the Ivorian Crisis

Michael — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:12:43 +0000

As the standoff continues in the Côte d’Ivoire, I thought it’d be good to provide a little background. After all, there’s more to the story than a sore loser–Gbagbo–not wanting to give up his job as president. To get a little deeper, we have to look at how Côte d’Ivoire became the world’s largest cocoa [...]

Côte d’Ivoire Tragedy Continues

Michael — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:45:53 +0000

First, my apologies for the long silence of this blog. I’ve had a really busy time and blog updates have taken a back seat. But I had to add a post, now that the presidential election in the Côte d’Ivoire has deteriorated into chaos. A quick summary: after five years of delays, the presidential election [...]

October is Fairtrade Month

Michael — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:47:16 +0000

Ok, folks. I’m a bit late with that information but here are some resources to help you buy more fairtrade products. Think there’s only fairtrade coffee and chocolate? Think again. Here’s a list of products available with fairtrade certification. Keep an eye out for them at your favorite store. Coffee CoffeeCocoa Chocolate Cocoa Dried Fruits [...]

FLO Increases Cocoa Floor Price and Social Premium

Michael — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 19:03:22 +0000

Here’s a bit of welcome news. For the first time since 1997, the Fairtrade Labelling Organization (FLO) has increased the minimum fairtrade price for cocoa. Starting January 1, 2011, the minimum price will be $2,000/ton up from $1,600/ton. The social premium will also increase from $150/ton to $200/ton. FLO is the global umbrella organization for [...]

Twin Trading is 25 Years Old

Michael — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 13:45:57 +0000

Twin Trading is not well known in the U.S., but it should be. Since 1985, it has done more than any agency to make fair trade real for ordinary farmers around the world. Starting with importing the first fair trade coffee to the UK to creating CafeDirect to helping found Kuapa Kokoo to launching Divine [...]

Ghana Increases Producer Prices

Michael — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 20:41:52 +0000

With the new cocoa season underway, Ghana’s Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) announced a 33 percent increase in farm gate prices. The new price of GH¢200 per bag lifts the per ton price to GH¢3,200 ($2,238) from last year’s GH2,400. The new prices recognizes the increases in the world market price over the past year. More importantly, [...]

Uganda Aims to Expand Cocoa Production

Michael — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:26:52 +0000

More and more countries situated in the magic band of 20 degrees north and south of the equator are giving cocoa another look. The high prices of the moment are probably an important factor. Uganda is not a name usually associated with cocoa. But the country has been busy expanding its cocoa acreage over the [...]

Shopping and Certification

Michael — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:20:30 +0000

Melissa Schweisguth, formerly of Dagoba Chocolate and now a freelancer and consultant on sustainability issues, has written a nice piece on sorting out the various certification schemes. Check it out.

Ghana Secures $1.5 Billion for 2010/11 Cocoa Harvest

Michael — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:19:08 +0000

In what has become an annual ritual, Ghana’s Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) managed to secure a $1.5 billion financing facility for the 2010/11 cocoa harvest. In a sign that international credit markets have eased up, the financing facility was oversubscribed. Banks from around the world actually offered $1.8 billion while COCOBOD was only seeking $1.2 billion. [...]

Hershey and Social Responsibility

Michael — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:05:24 +0000

Last week, the Hershey company released its Corporate Social Responsibility Report. Like many of such reports, it’s full of pretty pictures and statistics. What it does not mention is that Hershey is the only large chocolate maker in the US which has not yet participated in some form of third party certification for sourcing its [...]

“Choc Finger” Got Fingered

Michael — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 21:08:46 +0000

In July, I posted several comments on the attempt by Anthony Ward of Armajaro to corner the cocoa futures market by purchasing seven percent of the world supply of cocoa beans. Well, it turns out that he lost his bet. Rather than continue to increase, cocoa futures prices are down. Dramatically down, to be specific. [...]

Cocoa DNA Unravelled

Michael — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 21:04:39 +0000

It was only a question of time before it would happen, but on Wednesday, the New York Times (and many other news outlets) announced that two teams of scientists had sequenced the complete DNA chain of the cocoa tree. Most appropriately, the news appeared in the business section, not the science section. The two rival [...]

Kuapa Kokoo Elects First Woman President

Michael — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:32:00 +0000

2,600 delegates to the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Kuapa Kokoo elected Christina Ohene Agyare as new president of the cocoa farmers’ cooperative in Ghana. Ms Agyare is fifty-one and owns an eleven acre cocoa farm in the the Kwabeng Society in the Atiwa District, Eastern Region of the country. She is one of five [...]

The Man Who Just Bought 7 Percent of the World’s Cocoa

Michael — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:05:18 +0000

Anthony Ward, founder and CEO of Armajaro who just took delivery of all that cocoa, gave an interview in January that give some insight into why he bought so much cocoa. He is clearly betting on future shortages and hopes to cash in on the likely profits. On the other hand there are voices that [...]

‘Choc Finger’ Just Bought 7% of Global Cocoa Supplies

Michael — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 23:51:25 +0000

So it was Armajaro and not BNP Paris Bas. The man behind the huge cocoa corner is Anthony Ward. Check out the story in the Daily Mail. In 2002 he made £40 million in two month by simply hoarding cocoa. I wonder how much he will make this time.

Did Sombody Say ‘Corner?’

Michael — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:07:52 +0000

Yesterday, I mentioned that the massive purchase of cocoa that took place yesterday in London reminded me of the attempts to corner commodities markets in the late 1800s. Today, the UK’s Telegraph makes it explicit. Citing unnamed experts, the paper reports that “it was very unlikely that a chocolate company, such as Nestle or Kraft, [...]

A Funny Thing Happened on Thursday

Michael — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:28:16 +0000

Futures markets are basically places where people sell things they don’t have to people who don’t want them. In plain English, this means, traders just shuffle papers in the hopes of either averting price risk or making a profit. Positions are squared with opposite positions before the due date and nobody ever has to deal [...]

European Cocoa Companies Distrust Markets

Michael — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:02:35 +0000

A number of large European Cocoa companies have threatened to move their hedging business from LIFFE (London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange) to ICE (The former New York Board of Trade) unless LIFFE implements controls to limit speculative trades. According to a letter sent by sixteen European cocoa organizations, “the cocoa industry cannot continue [...]