World Running Out Of Chocolate!

[vt]

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/201...g_by_2020.html

But science is hard at work with a solution :

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014/...out-chocolate/

[shiny!]

Re: World Running Out Of Chocolate!

Ghana and the Ivory Coast produce 53%* of the cocoa sold in the world. They rely on child labor to keep costs competitive in the world markets. Most West African cocoa farmers only make $2-$3 per day (same as many coffee plantation workers). The only way they survive is to take their children out of school to work on their farms. The large plantations use child slaves and indentured workers. The children are sold into slavery by their parents or kidnapped in neighboring countries and brought in by human traffickers.

http://www.foodispower.org/slavery-chocolate/

http://munchies.vice.com/articles/yo...-child-slavery

Cocoa produced in Central and South America is less likely to come from slave labor than cocoa produced in the Ivory Coast or Ghana. A good practice to get into is to buy single-origin cocoa products from countries that don't use slave labor. That means paying a premium for chocolate from small companies that can trace the origins of their products, rather than from Nestles, Hershey, Mars, etc.

Similar issues with coffee. Most coffee workers are little more than slaves. Alternatively, small independent importers like Sweet Maria's pay fair prices for their coffee, better than the prices paid for certified "Fair Trade" coffee.

* edited to reflect PoZ's correct number

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: World Running Out Of Chocolate!

Ghana and the Ivory Coast produce 70% of the cocoa sold in the world.

53% of the worlds cocoa.

[shiny!]

Re: World Running Out Of Chocolate!

53% of the worlds cocoa.

The numbers vary according to every site I've checked, but I trust your numbers more than the others. Still, it's an awful lot of children being exploited.

[RebbePete]

Re: World Running Out Of Chocolate!

PCC - "Peak Cheap Chocolate."

[vt]

Re: World Running Out Of Chocolate!

+1

[lektrode]

Re: World Running Out Of Chocolate!

PCC - "Peak Cheap Chocolate."

+1

+2
we need a choc'n'gold index that plots the 2

[vt]

Re: World Running Out Of Chocolate!

The Gold ETF is GLD and Cocoa is NIB

Maybe someone can plot these on a chart

[GRG55]

Re: World Running Out Of Chocolate!

PCC - "Peak Cheap Chocolate."

Chocolate is "cheap"?

Hmmm, let's see:

A regular McDonald's hot chocolate = 402 ml (Canadian milliliters )
The number of regular McDonald's hot chocolates in one barrel = 395.49
Cost of a regular McDonald's hot chocolate = $1.75 (that's Canadian $)
Cost of a regular McDonald's hot chocolate = $1.54 (that's real American $, the kind the rest of the world wants)
Cost of one barrel of McDonald's hot chocolate = US $609.06
Cost of one gallon of McDonald's hot chocolate = US $14.50

And some of you folks think gasoline is expensive?

Starbucks' designer hot chocolate (for the 1%) MUCH dearer.
Ho Ho Ho.

[Forrest]

Re: World Running Out Of Chocolate!

Yes, but what is the price for a barrel of Dove Dark Chocolate? That would be far more to the point...at least to me.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: World Running Out Of Chocolate!

We have an outstanding little company down here called Whittakers.

Absolutely brilliant chocolate.

Fair trade cocoa and no Palm oil used.

Fair trade cocoa sourced from Ghana.

Indonesia is a fast growing producer.

Other South West Pacific countries produce cocoa and I've visited a few cocoa plantations in the region a number of years ago.

Small family/tribal growers that fed into co-ops.

They seemed to make a decent living compared to their broader peer group.

As soon as Ebola hit the only preparation we made was increasing our Whittakers inventory, or what I like to call my heart medication.

[wayiwalk]

Re: World Running Out Of Chocolate!

Okay, I'll bite.

The metric for me is what a pound of Callebaut semisweet (between 60% to 70%) is going for locally. The Wine Library in NJ intermittently offers the 10 lb (?) or whatever it is block normally packaged and sold to bakers, broken down into smaller blocks of around a pound or so, at $8.49 / lb. This is the best (cheapest) way to get my dark chocolate fix.....and also sample a few decent cheeses at their gourmet shop while I am there. Life is still good, but......a pound used to last me two weeks until my wife discovered where I was stashing it.

[gwynedd1]

Re: World Running Out Of Chocolate!

Oh another shortage? OK, then why doesn't the price go up?

[GRG55]

Re: World Running Out Of Chocolate!

Oh another shortage? OK, then why doesn't the price go up?

Because Goldman Sachs, JPM, Robert Rubin, Tim Geithner and the NY Fed are manipulating the market. I thought everybody knew that.

[GRG55]

Re: World Running Out Of Chocolate!

I didn't realize what a decadent lot you iTulipers are underneath all that analytic economics facade

Yes, but what is the price for a barrel of Dove Dark Chocolate? That would be far more to the point...at least to me.

We have an outstanding little company down here called Whittakers.

Absolutely brilliant chocolate.

Fair trade cocoa and no Palm oil used.

Fair trade cocoa sourced from Ghana.

Indonesia is a fast growing producer.

Other South West Pacific countries produce cocoa and I've visited a few cocoa plantations in the region a number of years ago.

Small family/tribal growers that fed into co-ops.

They seemed to make a decent living compared to their broader peer group.

As soon as Ebola hit the only preparation we made was increasing our Whittakers inventory, or what I like to call my heart medication.

Okay, I'll bite.

The metric for me is what a pound of Callebaut semisweet (between 60% to 70%) is going for locally. The Wine Library in NJ intermittently offers the 10 lb (?) or whatever it is block normally packaged and sold to bakers, broken down into smaller blocks of around a pound or so, at $8.49 / lb. This is the best (cheapest) way to get my dark chocolate fix.....and also sample a few decent cheeses at their gourmet shop while I am there. Life is still good, but......a pound used to last me two weeks until my wife discovered where I was stashing it.