Over 40 percent of cocoa comes from Ivory Coast and one-fourth of the population—about 6 million people—earn their living through the crop. In the past year, the price of cocoa has dropped by 30 percent, hitting record lows just after Valentine’s Day. In this episode, we’ll learn how this affects farmers on the ground and what consumers can do to have an impact.

Guests include:
Laurent Pipitone, former director of the economics and statistics division at the International Cocoa Organization, on the impacts of historically low cocoa prices on subsistence cocoa farmers in West Africa.

Antonie Fountain, managing director of the VOICE (Voice of Organisations in Cocoa in Europe) Network, on how the money consumers pay for chocolate is allocated.

Sako Warren, secretary general of the International Cocoa Farmers Organization (formerly the World Cocoa Farmers Organization), on what farmer empowerment in cocoa really means.

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Take a look at the drop in cocoa prices from 2016 to 2017 from Thomson Reuters Datastream below, and read insights from World Cocoa Foundation’s Rick Scobey on “Ensuring the Future of Chocolate.”