Chocolate prices high before Christmas

LONDON, Dec 11 (AFP): After soaring for nearly two years, cocoa prices dropped sharply in 2025. However, chocolate, in demand ahead of the festive holiday season, has seen prices rise.

AFP examines the reasons for the divergence and the current state of the cocoa market.

Ivory Coast and Ghana are the world's biggest suppliers of pods-the fruit of the cocoa tree-from which cocoa beans are extracted to make chocolate.

The two west African countries account for more than half of global production, with most of the remainder coming from Brazil, Cameroon, Ecuador, Indonesia and Nigeria.

The geographic concentration of plantations makes the cocoa market highly vulnerable to West Africa's weather patterns and tree diseases.

Cultivation is meanwhile carried out by a very large number of independent smallholders.

Cocoa harvests between 2021 and 2024 failed to meet demand, which sent prices soaring.

"That was the result of ... supply side issues like ageing trees, the spread of swollen shoot virus (and) the spread of black pot disease" in Ghana and Ivory Coast, Rabobank analyst Oran van Dort told AFP.

Low usage of fertiliser and pesticides, owing to farmers' low incomes, also contributed, he added.