Second Largest Cocoa Producer to Delay Deliveries

Ghana, the world’s second-largest cocoa producer, intends to delay the delivery of up to 350,000 tons of beans until the next season because of poor crops, reports Reuters.

Chocolate makers around the world are raising prices for consumers after cocoa more than doubled in value after a third consecutive year of poor harvests in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, according to the report. The regions are responsible for 60 percent of global cocoa production.

The country has been devastated by adverse weather, cocoa crop disease, and illegal gold mining, which can displace the cocoa farms. Moreover, there are reports that Ghanaian farmers are smuggling beans to neighboring countries to sell them at higher prices than the state purchasing price, thus reducing the crop size available for export, according to the report.

The market previously estimated that Ghana would roll over roughly 250,000 tons of cocoa, about half its current crop. Cocobod, Ghana's cocoa regulator, said the country originally sought to delay "some volumes, but not in those [350,000 ton] quantities."

The International Cocoa Organization expects global cocoa production to fall 10.9 percent this season. Full Story