this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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I explained the reason for this on reddit. TL;DR African farmers have better access to refrigeration and transport, and as a result have switched to more profitable crops than cacao (the reason they were growing cacao specifically was because it can be dried and stored without refrigeration until transport is available and demand is present). The price of chocolate has to increase substantially. There’s no point stockpiling it.
This graph is a reflection of African farmers’ lives improving playing out in global supply/demand economics. It’s only “depressing” if the only thing you care about is your access to cheap chocolate.
A lot of our economics relies on poverty in other countries to allow our "standard" of living. Cheap food, cheap clothes and people to take all of the rubbish we produce. Lifting other people out of poverty necessitates a lot of changes in our own lives, and unfortunately people tend to see all change as being negative and unwelcome. We see kids in India picking through rubbish dumps and are horrified, but are reluctant to reuse a water bottle and bring our own shopping bags to the store. We are outraged at the conditions of garment workers in Bangladesh, but still want cheap throw-away fast fashion, and are upset when nobody wants the castoffs that we give as "charity".
That was very interesting and informative, thanks for sharing 😊
Super interesting stuff thanks for the rundown.