May 2025 News & AMA | #PodSaveChocolate Ep 121
Episode 121 of #PodSaveChocolate features chocolate news that’s fit to eat and AMA/Ask me Anything (about chocolate and cocoa) for May 2025. [ Updated ]
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Episode 121 Overview
People participating live can ask AMA questions in the chat at any point during the episode. News topics lined up to be covered include:
The Continuing Saga of the Cost of Cocoa
| MARKETS |
|---|
| Graph – Trading Economics |
| ICCO Pricing Stats |
| Futures / Historical Prices / Moving Average – Barchart.com |
| TL;DR — With the main cocoa harvest having officially ended (in late March), expectations for the mid-crop are poor in terms of quality, along with the complexities of the EUDR towards the end of the year. The outlook for cocoa prices still remains bullish. |
The Ongoing Controversy over LIRP
What is the LIRP?
A Living Income Reference Price indicates the farmgate price needed for a typical farmer household with a viable crop area and a sustainable productivity level to earn a living income from the sales of their crop. A living income is sufficient income to afford a decent standard of living for the household members, including a nutritious diet, decent housing, education, health care, other essential needs and a provision for unexpected events.
— Source: Fairtrade.net
A Living Income Reference Price is based on four key variables:
Sustainable yields: Defined as a realistic target productivity level that can be attained when recommended sustainable agricultural practices are implemented. Feasible yield targets are set by producers and technical experts at origin, considering the local context, conditions and common production practices.
Viable crop area: A full-time farmer should be able to make a living income from farming. Therefore, a viable crop area to depend solely on the revenue of this crop for a livelihood is defined as sufficient land to fully absorb the available adult workforce in a typical household. This means that farmers who have a smaller land size likely need complementary income sources to make a living income.
Cost of sustainable production: The farm investments for implementing sustainable agricultural practices required to meet the target yield are calculated as the production costs. Any hired labour needed after the available household labour is fully deployed is factored in at a living wage.
Living income: Living Income benchmarks are established using the Anker methodology and represent the costs of a decent standard of living for a typical household, including food, shelter and other essential needs.The net farm income should be at least equal to a living income, in case of a viable farm area when sustainable yields are achieved.
— Source: Fairtrade.net
Anthony Myers
Feb 5
Fairtrade’s new reference prices, calculated in local currency, are converted to $2.68 per kilo of cocoa from Ghana, a 26% increase over the previous one, and €2.65 ($2.80) per kilo from Côte d’Ivoire, a 20% increase. As Fairtrade does with its minimum price, the Ivorian reference price is set in euros instead of US dollars to reduce the effect of exchange rate fluctuations between dollars and the local currency.
Anthony Myers
May 6
Anthony Myers
May 14
[...] questions figures released in Tony's Open Chain Impact report 2023-2024 (pp34) published before the publication of the new Fairtrade price standard, which states that "the expected yield is set at 800 kg/ha, based on consultations conducted by Fairtrade with farmers in West Africa in 2018/19.
There is a discrepancy because the figures are not currently reflected in Tony's open-chain supply chain: average yields are around 580 kg/ha, with more appropriate aspirational yields of 620 kg/ha.
— Source: Cocoa Radar (May 14 issue – link above)
Connecting the LIRP to Tony’s 2023/2024 “Fair” Report
[L] Original edition, P6 (Feb 2025); [C] Original edition, P136; Updated editrion, P6 (May 20250.
The changes to page six of the report were a direct result of my calling out this discrepancy in a post on LinkedIn. An unnamed representative of Tony’s called the error on page 6 in the original edition a copy editing error. The update was made to the page without any indication of the original mistake.
Where’s the commitment to transparency, Tony’s? (Why?)
Clay Gordon
Background
Other News
Brooke Just
The heavy metal scare in chocolate is, without exaggeration, complete fear mongering that relies on people taking things at face value. Long post but TLDR at top.
by u/Civil_Turn_1245 in chocolate
Joanna Fantozzi
The state of chocolate news in the media
Open Opportunity
Clay Gordon
Festival Updates
Clay Gordon
Updated through May with confirmed dates for the 2025 Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival in November – and more – are now on the calendar.
AMA Topic Resource Links
Links to stories and resources mentioned in the AMA will be added after the episode.
Clay Gordon
My LinkedIn post where I pointed out the issue on P6.
Questions?
If you have questions or want to comment, you can do so during the episode or, if you are a ChocolateLife member, you can add them in the Comments below at any time.
Episode Hashtags and Socials
#News #AMA #Trends
#cocoa #cacao #cacau
#chocolate #chocolat #craftchocolate
#PodSaveChoc #PSC
#LaVidaCocoa #TheChocolateLife
Future Episodes
Topic TBD
Interview and Tasting – Baianí Chocolat (Brazil)
#PodSaveChocolate and #TheChocolateLifeLIVE Archives
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Clay Gordon
Clay Gordon
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