The High Co$t of Expen$ive Cocoa: Part 2 | #PodSaveChocolate

By Clay Gordon | 14 days ago | 7 min read

Background: FireflyAI / Adobe | Pod graphic by: Sara Scodeller.

Episode 36 of #PodSaveChocolate is a continuation of the discussion about the current high cost of cocoa focusing more on why and how, than what begun in Episode 35.

When and Where to Watch

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This episode airs live, starting at 10:00 AM PDT/MST (11:00 MDT, 12:00 CDT, 13:00 EDT), on Friday, April 19th, 2024.

Click to watch on YouTube in a new tab or window. Please subscribe (free!) to the @PodSaveChocolate YouTube channel as well as like this video, comment, and share to help grow the #PSC community.

Link to watch and comment on LinkedIn.
Link to watch and comment on TheChocolateLife page on Facebook.

Join the conversation LIVE in the chat on all platforms!

Episode 36 Overview

The High Co$t of Expen$ive Cocoa is a fascinatingly complex, complicated, and important topic these days. During my recent episode with this title (Part 1 to this Part 2), Juan Andres Santelices, watching on LinkedIn, asked some very interesting questions in the live chat:

A lot is going on in there – it’s a lot more than one question – and so I told Juan that rather than give the questions short shrift I would use them as the basis for a future episode: This one.

The key points I wanted to make in Part 1 were: It is important to recognize that it is the policies of industry over the past 50 years that have led – inevitably – to the position we face today. We cannot overlook the “contributions” of Big Chocolate and Big Cocoa and we need to take a look at the current situation as an inflection point – presenting an opportunity to force much-needed systemic change.

Other questions and comments that were asked in Part 1 (plus one from Facebook) that I want to spend more time with, in this episode, include:

My first foray on this topic, September 2023.

Some Action Points: Preparing a United Response

Recap: Surveying the landscape
Is there a future for Fair Trade?
Defining terms
Not letting imperfection stand in the way of progress
Choosing good role models - Who are The Champions?
The importance of good data
The importance of consistent messaging and coordination
The importance of listening – and not going to an immediate no

Moving Forward ...

If what I discussed during either or both of these episodes interests you, I am opening up this coming Sunday’s (April 21st) Member AMA to anyone and everyone interested in continuing the discussions. Here is the Google Meet link to join the AMA, which begins at 10:00 PDT/MST and will last for approximately 90 minutes, depending on how many people are on the call.

One of my goals coming out of this episode and the AMA is to start organizing around some of the actions I present, inviting others – you – to join me in those efforts. In this light, I am looking at creating a consulting/coaching group that meets regularly via Google Meet. To be a part of that group, I ask for your support and become a member (or upgrade your existing membership) in TheChocolateLife at an annual Premium level of Team TCL Champion or Guru. This will enable me to devote the necessary time to this project.

Alternatively, if you have the resources and interest to support this effort on a greater scale, we can work on a custom ChocolateLife Collab program.

One project this group can start working on immediately is to update and package the information in my Wicked Good & Bad lists.

BACKGROUND

The price of cocoa has gone crazy bonkers. The charts below were screenshotted on Sunday, April 14th, and are already out of date. Watching the changes on a daily basis is a form of doomscrolling and bad for one’s mental health.

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Chocolate prices to keep rising as West Africa’s cocoa crisis deepens. [Source: Reuters]

On LinkedIn, the author is the UK Head of the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Co.

Changing Industry Dynamics – Questions to Consider

The following questions are, for me, the most important things to consider when it comes to the current prices and the long-term effects.

Do projects like the Be Slavery Free Chocolate Scorecard normalize industry practices in a way that can be seen to be regressive? (H/T Tim McCollum of Beyond Good for mentioning this point.)
Are we at an inflection point with respect to how big cocoa does business?
What could this mean for the future of tight government control?
What do the current prices mean for specialty chocolate? (And what about alt.chocolates?)
What are the lost opportunities – and the lost-opportunity costs?
The potential impact of the 2024 US presidential election on costs.

#TheHighCostOfExpensiveCocoa
#cocoa #cacao #cacau
#chocolate #chocolat #craftchocolate
#PodSaveChocolate #PodSaveChoc
#LaVidaCocoa #TheChocolateLife

Next Episode

The topic/guest for the Tuesday, April 23rd episode of PodSaveChocolate was not finalized prior to the publication date of this post.

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