>>199214415
>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjoK8Y8kkaw

8:45 Curious, that's why NYC outgrew Philadelphia and Boston

>>199214415
this is actually a good thread we can share news only people in their country would know about

>>199214415
are you sodomitic?

>>199215732
The situation on the markets is "dramatic," says Lindt Switzerland boss Marco Peter. He is therefore announcing the next price hike for Switzerland. What will this mean for the cocoa farmers?

The dimensions are impressive. Every day, employees at Lindt & Sprüngli in Olten unload several rail wagons, each containing 50 tons of cocoa beans. The chocolate company processes this raw material in the "Cocoa Center," which was recently expanded for 100 million francs, to create the heart of every bar of chocolate: a shiny brown, extremely bitter-tasting cocoa mass.

It is the result of a process that is now highly automated. The beans from Peru, Ecuador, Ghana and the Dominican Republic are broken open, roasted and ground here. This means that the basis for up to 4,000 tons of chocolate or 320 million Lindor balls leaves the factory every day.

Marco Peter is delighted that the global chocolate company has decided to double its production capacity in Olten. He is the head of the Swiss business and was able to convince the board of directors to locate in Olten. Despite this success, he also struck a thoughtful tone in conversation on the sidelines of the factory tour. The considerable quantities of cocoa beans that Lindt purchases cost a lot of money.

Jüngst eilte der Kakaopreis von Rekord zu Rekord. Zeitweise kostete eine Tonne über 11’000 Franken. In den letzten Wochen ist der Preis zwar etwas gefallen. Doch der Kapitalbedarf für die Hersteller bleibt immens. Jeder einzelne Bahnwaggon mit Kakaobohnen, der in Olten eintrifft, hat auf dem Spotmarkt einen Warenwert von mehr als 400’000 Franken.
Westafrika steht im «perfekten Sturm»

Hinter der Preisexplosion steht «ein perfekter Sturm», wie es Marktbeobachter formulieren. Sie meinen das nicht nur im übertragenen Sinn. Denn die Kakaokrise ausgelöst hat das Wetterphänomen El Niño. Es sorgte letzten Sommer dafür, dass die wichtigen Anbauländer in Westafrika und Südamerika von Starkregen heimgesucht wurden. Diese massiven Regenfälle und die anschliessende Dürre begünstigten die Ausbreitung von Krankheiten. Die Bauern konnten dieser Naturgewalt wenig entgegensetzen. Sie haben kaum Geld, das sie in Pflanzenschutzmittel und Dünger investieren könnten.

Ohnehin steigen die westafrikanischen Bauern gerade aus dem Kakaogeschäft aus. Sie erhoffen sich mehr Ertrag im illegalen Goldabbau und verkaufen deshalb ihr Land. Es ist ein weiteres Puzzleteil in diesem «perfekten Sturm». Alles zusammen führt dazu, dass die Ernten derzeit massiv tiefer ausfallen – und das wiederum treibt die Preise in ungeahnte Höhen.
Die Spirale dreht weiter

«Der Preisanstieg ist dramatisch und beschäftigt uns sehr stark», sagt Marco Peter. Man versuche zwar, mit Kostensenkungen in der Produktion gegenzusteuern. Doch das sei nur begrenzt möglich. Peter rechnet deshalb damit, dass dieses Jahr die Lindt-Schokolade in der Schweiz um «massiv mehr als zehn Prozent» teurer wird. Auf eine konkrete Zahl will er sich nicht festlegen. Die Massnahme werden die Kunden im Portemonnaie deutlich spüren. Bereits im letzten Jahr hat Lindt seine Preise weltweit um 10 Prozent angehoben.

Recently, the price of cocoa has been hitting record after record. At times, a tonne cost over 11,000 francs. In recent weeks, the price has fallen somewhat. But the capital requirements for manufacturers remain immense. Every single train wagon of cocoa beans that arrives in Olten has a commodity value of more than 400,000 francs on the spot market.

West Africa is caught in the "perfect storm"

Behind the price explosion is "a perfect storm", as market observers put it. They don't just mean that in a figurative sense. The cocoa crisis was triggered by the weather phenomenon El Niño. Last summer, it caused the important growing countries in West Africa and South America to be hit by heavy rain. This massive rainfall and the subsequent drought encouraged the spread of diseases. Farmers could do little to counteract this force of nature. They have hardly any money to invest in pesticides and fertilizers.

In any case, West African farmers are currently getting out of the cocoa business. They are hoping for higher yields from illegal gold mining and are therefore selling their land. It is another piece of the puzzle in this "perfect storm". All of this means that harvests are currently massively lower - and this in turn is driving prices to unprecedented heights.
The spiral continues

"The price increase is dramatic and is keeping us very busy," says Marco Peter. They are trying to counteract this by reducing production costs. But this is only possible to a limited extent. Peter therefore expects that Lindt chocolate in Switzerland will become "massively more than ten percent" more expensive this year. He does not want to commit to a specific figure. Customers will clearly feel the impact of the measure in their wallets. Lindt raised its prices worldwide by 10 percent last year.

There is much to suggest that prices will remain high. The supply of cocoa in the producing countries cannot be increased in the short term. A newly planted cocoa tree takes three to five years to bear fruit. To make matters worse, the warehouses are completely empty because the harvests have been poor for three years. At the same time, climate change is progressing and West African farmers hardly have the necessary means to adapt their farming methods.

In view of this cocoa crisis, will chocolate once again become the luxury item it has been for centuries? This observation is "not entirely wrong," says Marco Peter. He believes that the amount of chocolate sold must actually decrease first for the price of cocoa to settle back to a tolerable, lower level. But in the long term, this is not a desirable development for the industry, says Peter. After all, the industry wants to grow and serve the emerging middle class, especially in emerging countries.
Higher price, but lower harvest

There is of course another perspective: that of the cocoa farmers. In the most important growing countries in West Africa, they only benefit after a time delay from the fact that their raw material is in great demand on the world market. In Ghana, for example, the government only sets compensation once a year, before the main harvest in October.

Things are a little quicker for farmers in the Ivory Coast. The country adjusts the price twice a year. In April, it raised the so-called farm gate price by 50 percent, to $2.47 per kilo. This brings farmers' income closer to an amount that is actually enough to live on. For comparison: last year, the "living income" price calculated by Fairtrade Max Havelaar in the Ivory Coast was $2.39 per kilo. It covers all living costs, from food, housing, education to the farm's operating costs.

Anonymous ## Mod
07/01/24(Mon)07:54:52 No.199218027

Anonymous ## Mod 07/01/24(Mon)07:54:52 No.199218027

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