The price for a bar of chocolate may soon be going up. That’s because cocoa beans, the main ingredient in chocolate, are becoming harder to get.
When people want something that is hard to get, prices usually go up.
People around the world are demanding more chocolate and the farmers who grow cocoa beans can’t keep up with the demand for them. This shortfall, the difference between what is supplied and what is demanded, has gone on for a longer time than any other period in the last 50 years.
Cocoa beans are grown in Mexico and Central and South America, and the West Coast of Africa. But the new demand for chocolate comes mainly from Asia, especially China, Indonesia and India.
Chocolate sales in China have more than doubled in the past 10 years, according to a website called Quartz.com.
The problem is that cocoa is a product that doesn’t make much money for farmers. Jean-Marc Anga, the executive director of the International Cocoa organization has been quoted as saying that cocoa prices have to go up so farmers will make more money and will continue to grow the beans. Right now farmers make only three per cent of the value of a chocolate bar.
Last month, 12 cocoa and chocolate companies signed an agreement that promised to help farmers continue growing cocoa.
According to Olam, one of companies, this agreement will provide farmers with some money, better planting materials, fertilizers and training in Ivory Coast and Ghana in Africa.
If this happens, it is expected that more farmers will want to grow cocoa.