Cocoa farmers uproot their plants despite record prices

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Cocoa was the best-performing commodity in 2024, outpacing even bitcoin, but that hasn’t stopped farmers from abandoning the crop. Farmers in the top cocoa-producing region of the world are reseeding their lands because of a mixture of bad weather, failed government policies—many of which were aimed at helping farmers—and a fast-moving virus that has ravaged their plants.

The result is higher prices for chocolate lovers and a steep drop in production from Ivory Coast and Ghana, the traditional cocoa behemoths of West Africa. John Ato Sackey, 55 years old, grew cocoa for more than 30 years on the 12-acre farm he inherited from his father in Assin Nsuaem, Ghana. For more than two decades, up until 2022, the farm consistently produced around 5,000 cocoa pods a year.

Each cocoa pod produces approximately one 3.5-ounce bar of 70% dark chocolate. “It was a lot of hard work, but it paid off," Sackey said. “It provided us with a steady income, which allowed us to send our children to school and provide for their healthcare." But as prices soared to record levels, Sackey pulled up his cocoa trees, which had been decimated over the past two years by cacao swollen-shoot virus, a disease that causes root necrosis and is deadly to cocoa trees.

Sackey is currently planting oil palm seedlings. “We’re hoping that palm-oil production will be more sustainable and profitable for us," he said. “It’s less susceptible to disease, and it requires less labor and inputs.