The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[jbog]

The World Cocoa System has been in flux since 2016 and probably won't start leveling off until 2019/2020.

What transpired was that in 2014/2015 some groups twisted the arms of the major purchasers (Nestle, Mondelez, Hersey) to commit to purchase only 100% "certified" Cocoa. The driving force of this was the Gates Foundation and other humanity groups.

Because the majority of Cocoa Production is in Africa they wanted to treat Cocoa similar to the Current Diamond Industry. In other words the small farmers had to be paid a livable wage ($3d) rather than slave wages.

Because most of the current Cocoa is produced on very small farms in very remote places many of the larger farms became "government certified" and became larger while the smaller farms are still flooding the marketplace.

The big purchasers are only using 50% to 60% "certified cocoa" today and will hit their goal in early 2020.

Stay away until their done.