Wholesale cocoa prices rose 400% last year, and human-induced climate change is largely to blame, say two reports published just ahead of Valentine’s Day, revealing the chocolate industry’s dark side.
The Theobroma cacao tree, which requires steady warmth between 20°C and 28°C and predictable rainfall, saw its conditions severely disrupted in four West African countries that together produce over 70% of the world’s cocoa, Climate Central writes in a new report.
Rather than T. cacao-nurturing warmth, climate change delivered six extra weeks of extreme heat, above 32°C, across much of the region. High temperatures reduce photosynthesis, leading to fewer flowers and smaller beans. Heat stress can also cause the cacao trees to shed leaves, depriving the cocoa pods of much-needed shade.
The 2024 heat wave that gripped much of West Africa was part of a larger pattern. Analyzing daily maximum temperatures over the past decade, Climate Central found global heating added at least three weeks above 32°C to the main cacao crop season in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, just over two weeks of the same in Cameroon, and more than one week in Nigeria.
The predictable rainfall essential to cocoa growth also failed to materialize. Côte d’Ivoire’s cacao farms received 40% more rain than normal in July, only to be followed by a prolonged drought—an erratic pattern that also afflicted Ghana. Such extreme swings wreak havoc on cacao trees, as drought causes them to shed pods while excessive rain fosters fungal diseases.
Climate change is also imperilling the tiny Forcipomyia midge—the main pollinator of T. cacao, writes Christian Aid in its Cocoa Crisis report. Without these midges, cocoa trees cannot be effectively pollinated, further jeopardizing future harvests.
Little Truffle, Big Footprint
Theobroma cacao trees are a thirsty species, Christian Aid adds. A 100-gram mass-produced chocolate bar can require the input of 1,500 to 2,000 litres of water. Cocoa cultivation also consumes vast swathes of biodiverse, carbon-sequestering forest. “Forest clearance for cacao production has been implicated in 70% of illegal deforestation in Côte d’Ivoire,” the charity warns.
Other chocolate ingredients, such as palm oil and soy lecithin, also contribute significantly to deforestation, particularly in Southeast Asia. Deforestation, in turn, accelerates global heating, worsening the climate impacts that threaten cocoa production.
Sweet Treat, Bitter Industry
Beyond environmental concerns, the cocoa industry struggles with exploitative labour practices. From meager wages to child labour and pesticide exposure, growing cacao for the global chocolate industry is a cruel business, Christian Aid writes.
“Chocolate growers typically do not make enough money from their production to cover their basic needs,” with female farmers facing even harsher conditions. Where male farmers make an average of 75 cents per day, women can earn as little as one-third of that.
Cocoa farmers typically take home just 6% of the final value of a bar of chocolate, with “most not organized into the cooperatives that could enable them to better collectively bargain and benefit.”
Trapped by poverty and illness, and denied education, cocoa farmers have neither the cash nor capacity to implement climate-resilient agroforestry techniques. Some are driven to collaborate with illegal loggers or poachers who further degrade the cacao ecosystem, increasing vulnerability.
This enforced incapacity has climate consequences, Christian Aid says, citing a study of Indonesian cacao farms that found multi-shade agroforestry systems stored five times more carbon than monoculture plantations—without sacrificing yield.
‘Bean-to-Bar’ A Better Way
“Cacao is very much a princess. She needs a lot of love at the best of times,” said Dominique Chartrand, founder of Chocolat Voyageur in Miramichi, New Brunswick. A “bean-to-bar” chocolatier, Chartrand said she can do little to protect cacao from the ravages of climate change. But she told The Energy Mix she prioritizes ethical sourcing, working with distributors who maintain direct relationships with farmers and pay them fairly.
With a fair price comes the capacity to protect the biodiversity upon which cacao trees depend, which in turn can help them weather climate impacts.
Still, Chocolat Voyageur is feeling the pinch of climate change. Chartrand is still waiting for “a wonderful bean from Colombia” that was due in August—one for which she already paid.
To stay afloat, she raised her prices last year for the first time, but she hasn’t changed her ethical standards.
There are some price complaints, but many of her customers are now asking “pointed questions” about climate change and the social costs of cacao.
“We say little changes can’t help, that we’re so beyond that now, but cacao is the perfect example of what can change when everyone cares and takes care,” Chartrand said.
For the small farmers she works with, she added, cacao is a “generational source of pride, culture, and love.”
It is also a commodity worth billions of dollars. Valued at US$109 billion in 2024, the global chocolate market is expected to hit US$145 billion by 2030, reports Christian Aid.
“Chocolate is one of the many products that connects consumers in the Global North with growers in the Global South,” Osai Ojigho, director of policy and public campaigns at Christian Aid, said in a press release. With farmers bearing the brunt of climate change, urgent emissions cuts and targeted climate finance to cocoa growers are needed to ensure a sustainable and fair market.
