Africa-Press – Angola. Cocoa farmers across West Africa are monitoring the progress of several plant diseases that are ruining harvests on a massive scale.
This situation is contributing to the increase in the global price of cocoa, the raw material for making chocolate, to record levels, reports Africanews, which provides the information.
The fungal disease black rot is just one of many that affect crops, the spread of which is influenced by months of wet weather.
Another major problem in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire is the insect-borne cocoa swollen shoot virus, which is usually resolved by completely cutting down infected trees.
At the moment, global chocolate production is insufficient.
The global market is expected to grow from a value of $48 billion in 2022 to nearly $68 billion in 2029, according to analysts at Fortune Business Insights.
Côte d’Ivoire and neighboring Ghana supply more than half of the world’s demand for cocoa.
With the growing demand for chocolate, especially in Asia, and the drop in global supply, prices are also expected to remain high, says the same source.
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