Ten Top Problems Facing Chocolate Today | #PodSaveChocolate Ep 153

When and Where to Watch

Ten Top Problems Facing Chocolate Today | #PodSaveChocolate Ep 153

#PodSaveChocolate Episode 153 takes a look at ten top problems facing chocolate and cocoa that cocoa producers, chocolate makers, confectioners, a…

YouTube

This LINKEDIN link is shareable.

Watch and comment LIVE or view the archived episode on LinkedIn. Join my network on LinkedIn to receive notifications and to refer business to each other.

Watch this episode on LinkedIn

This FACEBOOK link is shareablE

Watch and comment LIVE or view the archived episode on TheChocolateLife page on Facebook (for 30 days, then watch the archive on YouTube).

Follow TheChocolateLife on Facebook to receive notifications and catch up on other content.

Watch this episode on Facebook

Episode 153

In this episode, I will present and analyze “Ten Top” issues in chocolate and cocoa facing cocoa producers, chocolate makers, confectioners, and chocolate lovers today.

The two Ten Top lists being examined were generated by asking the same questions (prompts) of two different LLMs; so there will be some fact-checking and meta-analysis of the results, connections that the LLMs miss – we don’t take anything generated by an LLM at face value: fact-checking is always necessary, as is close reading for missing nuance and connections; you know, things humans are really good at.

The Interpretive Notes were added after re-reading the entire post several times.

Ten Top Issues (according to one LLM)

1. Climate Change and Crop Vulnerability
   Cocoa trees require very specific conditions (hot, humid, stable temperatures). Changing weather patterns, increased droughts, and extreme temperatures are threatening yields in West Africa, which produces 70% of the world's cocoa. Some projections suggest suitable growing areas could shrink significantly by 2050.
   
   Interpretive Note: This LLM focuses on West Africa in general and Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana in particular. Two other countries in the cocoa belt, Nigeria and Cameroon, are also major producers. AND, Latin American producing countries (especially Peru and Ecuador) are not mentioned. Thus, the reporting is incomplete, and there are going to be biases that need further investigation.
   
2. Supply Chain Volatility and Price Spikes
   Cocoa prices have hit historic highs recently due to poor harvests, diseases, and weather disruptions. This creates financial instability for producers and manufacturers, with prices sometimes doubling or tripling in short periods.
   
   Interpretive Note: There is no mention of consumers here. Consumers ultimately pay for all increases in costs.
   
3. Poverty Among Cocoa Farmers
   The majority of cocoa farmers live below the poverty line, earning less than $1-2 per day. This makes it difficult to invest in better farming practices, education, or diversification, perpetuating a cycle of poverty.
   
   Interpretive Note: The $1-$2/day figure needs to be revisited in light of the recent increases in the farm gate prices in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. These prices will set a new global floor for the price of cocoa, and income claims need to be completely reevaluated.
   
4. Child Labor and Forced Labor
   Despite decades of initiatives, child labor remains widespread in cocoa-producing regions, particularly in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. Poverty forces families to rely on children for farm work, and in some cases, involves trafficking and forced labor.
   
   Interpretive Note: The claim “child labor remains widespread in cocoa-producing regions” is simplistic. There is no definition for what ‘widespread’ means (outside of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana), and forced child labor is not unique to cocoa.
   
5. Aging Trees and Low Productivity
   Many cocoa trees in major producing regions are 30+ years old and past their productive prime. Farmers often lack resources to replant, contributing to declining yields and vulnerability to disease.
   
   Interpretive Note: Nothing to add to this claim; it’s true. However, two contributors to the situation are 1) the insistence on keeping the smallholder farmer on the smallholder farm; and 2) the systemic lack of investment in cocoa farms and farmers by governments and industry for over half a century.
   
6. Disease and Pests
   Black pod disease, cocoa swollen shoot virus, and pests like the cocoa pod borer destroy significant portions of harvests annually. Climate change is expanding the range of some of these threats.
   
   Interpretive Note: The focus on West Africa overlooks diseases in other parts of the world, especially witches broom.
   
7. Deforestation
   Cocoa farming has been a significant contributor to deforestation in West Africa and other tropical regions, as farmers clear forests to plant new cocoa trees. This creates environmental damage and contributes to climate change, which then threatens the cocoa itself.
   
   Interpretive Note: The EUDR mentions agricultural activities, one of which is cocoa farming, which, according to some reports, contributes to 7% of deforestation. Soybeans and palm oil are far greater contributors to ongoing deforestation in agriculture.
   
8. Lack of Traceability and Transparency
   Complex supply chains make it difficult to trace cocoa beans from farm to bar, complicating efforts to ensure ethical sourcing, fair payments, and sustainability. Many manufacturers struggle to verify that their supply chains are free from deforestation or labor abuses
   
   Interpretive Note: I would say most, rather than many, if you count by market share and not by number.
   
9. Processing and Infrastructure Challenges
   Most cocoa-producing countries export raw beans rather than processed chocolate, missing out on value-added profits. Limited infrastructure, inconsistent electricity, and the lack of investment in processing facilities keep producing countries economically dependent.
   
   Interpretive Note: What is missing here is an understanding that many cocoa-producing countries have extensive derivatives production facilities. The focus on chocolate without considering liquor, butter, powder, and nibs production in producing countries skews some aspects of this observation, along with the fact that most of the biggest plants are owned by multinationals.
   
10. Consumer Expectations vs. Reality
    Chocolate lovers increasingly want ethical, sustainable, high-quality chocolate at affordable prices—a combination that's extremely difficult to deliver given the realities of cocoa production. This creates tension between consumer demands, fair pricing for farmers, and business viability for manufacturers.
    
    Interpretive Note: Consumers have it within their power to force change by voting with their wallets.

These problems are deeply interconnected, making them challenging to solve in isolation. Many initiatives are underway, but progress has been slow and uneven across the industry.

Ten Top Issues (according to another LLM)

1. Climate instability: Heat, drought, and erratic rainfall (recent El Niño) are cutting West African yields and amplifying shocks.
   
   Interpretive Note: This is a global issue. West Africa is important because of the percentage of global production within the region.
   
2. Epidemics in cacao: Cacao swollen shoot virus (CSSV) is spreading in Ghana, causing severe long-term yield loss despite control attempts.
   
   Interpretive Note: Increased humidity, aging trees, and other factors contribute to the spread of fungal diseases everywhere. CSSV is an issue in West Africa, not Latin America and other regions.
   
3. Market whiplash: Record-high and highly volatile cocoa futures since 2024 have disrupted planning, hedging, and pricing for makers and confectioners.
   
   Interpretive Note: And for consumers.
   ​
4. New EU deforestation rules (EUDR): Mandatory geolocation, due diligence statements, and “deforestation-free” proof for cocoa/chocolate—delayed to late 2025 but still transformative for traceability.
   
   Interpretive Note: Potentially transformative for traceability. The EU systems are black boxes with no requirement to report other than when a company is out of compliance.
   
5. Farmer livelihoods: Even at high futures prices, complex supply chains and policy bottlenecks often decouple farm incomes from market spikes, fueling smuggling and crop exit.
   
   Interpretive Note: This interpretation does not mention the contributions that governments (e.g., COCOBOD in Ghana) make in price-fixing; “decoupl[ing] farm incomes from market spikes”
   
6. Labor risks: Persistent child labor exposure in agriculture (including cocoa regions) requires stronger social protection, monitoring, and accountability.
   
   Interpretive Note: Monitoring measures systems without proposing cures.
   
7. Heavy metals compliance: Cadmium and lead limits (EU, Prop 65) complicate origin selection, formulations, and labeling, especially for high-cocoa products and powders.
   
   Interpretive Note: This is a bogeyman argument; there is no established causal link in healthy adults between chocolate and cocoa consumption and heavy metal poisoning.
   
8. Input and logistics costs: Rising energy, packaging, and shipping costs stack atop cocoa price spikes, squeezing margins and disrupting product portfolios. 
   
   Interpretive Note: True, but again, no understanding of the impact on consumers, even though consumers were explicitly mentioned in the prompt.
   
9. Industry concentration: A few trading houses/processors dominate midstream capacity, amplifying systemic risk and constraining small makers’ options.
   
   Interpretive Note: More than 80% of the entire chocolate and cocoa market is controlled by about twenty companies ... and five governments.
   
10. Consumer trust and health: Sugar reduction, UPF (ultra-processed foods) scrutiny, and provenance claims collide with complex traceability; compliance and communication are now core brand competencies.
    
    Interpretive Note: I would have to say that “compliance and communication [must now become] core [...] competencies.

Using LLMs to Summarize Similarities and Differences

Both lists converge on climate, disease, ethics, price volatility, regulation, logistics, and trust; they differ in granularity and emphasis.

High‑overlap themes (same core idea, different wording)

• Climate change vs. climate instability: Both flag weather‑driven yield risk and shrinking suitability.
• Disease and pests vs. epidemics in cacao: Both highlight CSSV, black pod, borers, worsening under climate stress.
• Poverty/child labor vs. farmer livelihoods/labor risks: Both center ethical/livelihood deficits and labor harms.
• Deforestation vs. EUDR regulation: Both tackle land‑use and traceability, one as cause (deforestation), the other as compliance response.
• Supply chain volatility vs. market whiplash: Both describe price spikes/volatility disrupting planning and incomes.
• Traceability/transparency vs. consumer trust: Both point to proof of provenance and credibility with buyers.
• Processing/infrastructure vs. industry concentration/logistics: Both speak to midstream constraints, costs, and limited capacity.

Emphasis differences (where one list goes deeper)

• Heavy metals compliance and health: Only the second list specifies cadmium/lead limits and UPF/sugar scrutiny; the first implies health indirectly via consumer expectations.
• Aging trees and low productivity: Only the first list calls out tree age and replanting gaps explicitly.
• Consumer expectations vs. business realities: Only the first frames the affordability–ethics tension as a distinct issue.
• Regulation specificity: The second list names EUDR and due diligence mechanics; the first keeps it broader with transparency/deforestation.

By Group

Cocoa Producers

• Climate change/instability; disease and pests; aging trees/productivity; poverty and livelihoods; deforestation; processing/infrastructure gaps; regulation data demands (EUDR geolocation).

Chocolate Makers

• Market whiplash; heavy metals compliance; industry concentration; input/logistics costs; regulation/traceability execution; origin selection under contaminants constraints.

Confectioners

• Input/logistics costs; price volatility in portfolios; reformulation under health scrutiny; provenance claims alignment; margin management.

Chocolate Lovers

• Price/availability impacts; health concerns (cadmium/lead, sugar/UPF); trust in ethical/deforestation‑free claims; quality variability from reformulations.

Net Takeaways

• The first list is descriptive and producer‑centric;
  The second is operational and compliance‑centric.
• Together, they suggest a pipeline:
  on‑farm shocks →
  midstream constraints and rules →
  downstream reformulation and messaging →
  consumer trust.

Questions?

If you have questions or want to comment, you can do so during the episode or, if you are a ChocolateLife member, add them in the Comments below at any time.

Episode Hashtags and Socials

#cocoa #cacao #cacau
#chocolate #chocolat #craftchocolate
#PodSaveChoc #PSC
#LaVidaCocoa #TheChocolateLife

Future Episodes

#PodSaveChocolate and #TheChocolateLifeLIVE Archives

To read an archived post and find the links to watch archived episodes, click on one of the bookmark cards, below.

Pod Save Chocolate Calendar and Archive

News, views, and conversations on topics in cocoa and chocolate streamed live to YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook. #PodSaveChocolate!

The Chocolate LifeClay Gordon

#TheChocolateLifeLIVE Archive

News, views, and conversations on topics in cocoa and chocolate streamed live to YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

The Chocolate LifeClay Gordon

PodSaveChocolate

Hosted by Clay Gordon, the creator and moderator of TheChocolateLife.com, #PodSaveChocolate covers a wide variety of topics in the worlds of cocoa and chocolate. The video versions of this podcast are hosted and archived on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Click on the PodSaveChocolate link in the top nav on TheChocolateLife for the links to the post accompanying each episode.

Pinecast

Become a Premium ChocolateLife Member!