Africa’s Beleagured Cocoa Farmers Get Needed Help From Chocolate Makers

Cocoa production is down, especially in Ghana, and prices have soared by 40 percent in the last four years. Worse, this frustrating situation has occurred at a time when demand is up in markets like China and India, where chocolate treats have always been considered unaffordable. To rectify the problem, Mondelez and 10 big chocolate producers and cocoa processors are investing a billion dollars in cocoa-sustainability programs to boost crop productivity. Cocoa production in Ghana in 2014 fell 18 percent from 2013 earlier, thanks to disease, dry weather and shifts in government policy. Ivory Coast’s cocoa harvest increased 2.8 percent. Global demand for chocolate rose 0.6 percent in 2015, but production fell 3.9 percent to 4.2 million tons.