“It’s a nightmare, I don’t think any business involved in chocolate has avoided this impact, and it’s all down to climate change.”
Andy Soden, Kernow Chocolate
(from Christian Aid report)
Last year, the hottest year globally on record, they found global heating drove temperatures above 32C on at least 42 days across two thirds of the areas analysed.
Researchers said “excessive heat can contribute to a reduction in the quantity and quality of the harvest”.
Many other factors were potentially harming cacao trees and boosting prices, they noted, including mealybug infestations, rainfall patterns, smuggling and illegal mining.
Christian Aid published separate research this week on the vulnerability of chocolate and cacao farmers to weather changes driven by global heating.
Several recent stories on chocolate prices... one of our favourite treats.
First up is The Guardian which talks about food price volatility.
This article showed the dramatic increase in the price of coffee in recent months.
Cocoa is the key ingredient in chocolate production.
The region of West Africa which is responsible for a high percentage of total world production has been experiencing higher than average temperatures which has affected the growth of cocoa pods.
From the article:Last year, the hottest year globally on record, they found global heating drove temperatures above 32C on at least 42 days across two thirds of the areas analysed.
Researchers said “excessive heat can contribute to a reduction in the quantity and quality of the harvest”.
Many other factors were potentially harming cacao trees and boosting prices, they noted, including mealybug infestations, rainfall patterns, smuggling and illegal mining.
Christian Aid published separate research this week on the vulnerability of chocolate and cacao farmers to weather changes driven by global heating.
A key metric is the Heat Index.
The heat index, also known as apparent temperature, is a measure that combines temperature and humidity to reflect how heat feels to the human body because higher levels of humidity make it harder for the humans to cool down.While the average air temperature in West Africa was above 36°C,the heat index for the same period was about 50°C, reflecting how a combination of humidity and high temperatures caused dangerous conditions.
The researchers found that climate change made the heatwave as measured by the heat index about 4°C hotter and ten times more likely. Before humans started burning fossil fuels, similar heatwaves used to be rare events, occurring less than once every 100 years.
However, in today’s climate, with 1.2°C of warming, similar humid heatwaves occur about once every 10 years.
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