High Cocoa Prices: Record Levels

A bullish market is predicted with high prices overall. West African crops are reported down and consumers could end up paying more as a result. Also, child labor exploitation is still a huge problem for the cocoa producing regions which could also bring up prices, even with the voluntary Harkin-Engel Protocol, named after the people who passed it: Senator Tom Harkin and Congressman Eliot Engel.

While aprox. 3/4 of the total cocoa crop comes from Africa, about 40% of the world’s cocoa crop comes from Cote D’Ivoire. Info from the US State Department on that African region.

Renee Shelton