Cocoa supremacy under threat

A view of a nursery, where hybrid cocoa seedlings are grown, in the Samreboi community in the Western Region, Ghana. While millions of cocoa farmers in West Africa are facing a painful watershed moment, it’s a shift that will also be felt in wealthy consumer markets, possibly for years to come. Shoppers buying Easter confectionery in the United States are discovering that chocolate on store shelves is more than 10% more expensive than a year ago, according to data from research firm NielsenIQ. — Reuters

SURVEYING the stripped landscape of her farm – dotted with pools of cyanide-tainted, tea-coloured waste water left by illegal gold miners – is enough to make Janet Gyamfi break down.

Only last year, the 27ha plot in western Ghana was covered with nearly 6,000 cocoa trees. Today, less than a dozen remain.