Who wins with an increase of more than $10,000 in tons of cocoa in Ecuador? , Report | news

The price of cocoa for delivery next May reached an all-time high of $10,080 per metric ton before the end of the day on Tuesday, March 26, and closed at $9,622 on the New York Stock Exchange.

According to specialized studies, the price of cocoa has more than tripled in the past year and will increase by 129% in 2024.

This situation surprises even members of the National Association of Cocoa Exporters (Anecacao).

Of the cocoa chains in Ecuador, those who gain the most profits are producers distributed in all provinces of the country, since the crop can be grown at altitudes up to 1,200 meters above sea level.

Last year cocoa farmers got up to $120 per quintal of dry cocoa and as of this week the price is around $420 or moreThat is, an increase of 250%, a little more than three times, indicates Merlin Casanova, executive director of Anecação.

“This level of prices was never seen in Ecuador, not even when there was bounce Cocoa producers (between the late 19th and early 20th centuries). The big winners are the producers who get prices never seen before. This helps a lot so that they can reinvest this surplus in their gardens, take care of the crop and post-harvest and do proper treatment,” says Casanova.

The most beneficiaries are small, medium and large cocoa producers, Gustavo Pazmiño, sustainability and food chain leader of Yara Ecuador, agrees: “This semester of the year is the one with the least productivity in the country, since it grows from July to November. Crops in these months At most, 30% of the national annual output occurs in the first semester, with the remainder occurring throughout the second semester.”

Therefore, if these prices persist till the second half of 2024 there will be more profits, experts say.

Casanova points out that other actors in the chain do not necessarily benefit: “Those who bought a ton at $2,500 or 3,000 now have to practically triple it because the cost is more than $9,800. Exporters and marketers who Their liquidity and flows become quite complex to remain in the trade sector and be able to pay producers.

Chocolate businesses that must purchase raw materials also face competitive difficulties. “Not everyone has their own produce, so they have to buy,” Casanova says.

The larger export sectors, which have international capital and the assets to buy cocoa, also currently benefit, says Pazmiño, because they have the capacity to acquire it: “On the other hand, small cocoa collection centers and medium-sized The exporters have a budget limit on their hands, they don’t have that much capital to buy cocoa at such a high price.

In Ecuador, according to Anecação, There are approximately 150,000 cocoa producers, He 70% of them are small producers who cultivate an average area of ​​five hectares or less., They are distributed in rural areas, most of them remote and poorly connected to the main road network.

20% of producers have between 5 and 10 hectares. The remaining 10% have more than ten hectares. Some of this last group export their production directly.

There are associations that include small farmers to ship their crops directly.

However, there is a chain of intermediaries to serve most small producers living in remote rural areas.

Producers in Los Ríos province generally sell directly to exporters, but producers in remote areas are connected to the market through middlemen.

Approximately 600,000 hectares of cocoa are planted in the country. He says production has grown at an average rate of 4% or 5% annually

gone from ecuador Eighth largest global cocoa exporter in 2007/2008 to third in 2022/2023, It has overtaken Ivory Coast and Ghana, African countries that currently have production problems due to climatic conditions, which represents an opportunity for Ecuador to gain more markets.

Export volumes have increased over the past fifteen years, from 109,000 tonnes

Source link