Climate change threatens Valentine's Day gift of chocolates, charity warns

Independent

12-02-2025

The traditional Valentine Day's gift of chocolates is under threat from climate change, campaigners have warned.
Extreme weather driven by climate change is hitting cocoa harvests in key countries for the crop, forcing up prices and creating an uncertain future for farmers, a report from charity Christian Aid said.
The report warned that global cocoa prices have soared 400% after droughts, floods and climate-related diseases hit production last year, slashing the availability of the crop on international markets and causing chocolate bars to shrink.
Rising temperatures and erratic rainfall have hit Ghana and Ivory Coast in West Africa, where more than 50% of the world's cocoa is grown, with the shortage starting in 2023 after unexpectedly heavy rain during Ghana's dry season which caused plants to rot with black pod disease.
That was followed by severe drought in 2024, which the UN has said affected more than a million people, resulting in huge crop losses and record-high food prices, and which scientists said was made 10 times more likely by climate change, the report said.
Christian Aid's report is being published at the same time as a study from Climate Central which reveals that West Africa's 'cocoa belt' across Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Nigeria, where 70% of the world's crop is grown, is heating up with climate change.
Analysis of daily maximum temperatures during the past decade shows climate change added at least three weeks a year above 32C during the main cocoa season in Ivory Coast and Ghana, just over two weeks above 32C annually in Cameroon and more than one week in Nigeria.
We need to see emissions cut, and targeted climate finance going to cocoa growers to help them adapt
Osai Ojigho, Christian Aid
In 2024, human-caused climate change added six weeks worth of days above 32C in 71% of cocoa-producing areas across the four countries, higher than the optimum temperatures for growing cocoa.
Excessive heat can damage the quality and quantity of the cocoa crop, the climate research and communications organisation said.
Cocoa growing is being affected in other parts of the world too, with farmers such as Amelia Pop Chocoj, a cocoa grower in Guatemala, saying her plantations have been dying due to the lack of water, meaning there is no food for the family.
'The cocoa trees are dying, which are usually very resilient,' she said, adding that, when it comes to climate-related crop losses, 'I'm actually not worried that it 'may' happen, it's happening already'.
Christian Aid is calling for action to cut the emissions from fossil fuels and other sources that are driving rising temperatures, and for finance targeted towards cocoa farmers to help them adapt to the changing climate.
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
And UK chocolatiers have warned that the impact of a rapidly changing climate, as well as El Nino/La Nina patterns in the Pacific which affect weather globally, risks putting small manufacturers out of business.
Andy Soden, from Kernow Chocolate, said the company's wholesale cost of chocolate in 2025 is 'very close' to passing the 2023 retail price.
'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,' he said.
Osai Ojigho, director of policy and public campaigns of Christian Aid, said: 'Growing cocoa is a vital livelihood for many of the poorest people around the world and human-caused climate change is putting that under serious threat.'
She added: 'We need to see emissions cut, and targeted climate finance going to cocoa growers to help them adapt.'