Now it's chocolate: prices hit records as Ghana, Ivory Coast and China cut out Western firms

Now it's chocolate: prices hit records as Ghana, Ivory Coast and China cut out Western firms
Cocoa prices are hitting historic highs, as Western commodities markets are registering deficits of 478,000 tons of cocoa beans.

This is the result of a strategy by West African countries Ghana and Ivory Coast, the two biggest suppliers of cocoa to global markets. Beginning in 2019, they partnered with Chinese firms to process their cocoa in-country, and to sell their product directly to Chinese companies.

By cutting out speculators and traders in Western brokerages, and going around marketing and branding companies in the US and Switzerland, producers in Africa and their buyers in China retain far larger profits for themselves. West African suppliers more than double their exports by grinding their cocoa beans in-country, and Chinese firms realize far higher margins and guaranteed supplies of the world's highest-quality processed cocoas.