With West Africa’s 2014 cacao harvest just a few weeks away,
could the “Ebola lockdown” ruin the global chocolate industry?
By: Ringo Bones
The world’s travel advisory powers-that-be had been telling
everyone planning to visit Western African countries to avoid unnecessary trips
in order to avoid catching or inadvertently spreading the Ebola virus, with the
West African 2014 cocoa harvest just a few weeks away will the planned “Ebola
lockdown” not only ruin local economies in West Africa like major cocoa / cacao
producers like Ivory Coast but could eventually skyrocket global chocolate
prices? Given what’s happening during the last few days in Guinea, Liberia,
Sierra Leone and Nigeria and the planned 4-day Ebola lockdown by Sierra Leone
scheduled for September 18 to 21, it looks like Ebola could negatively affect
all business activity within the region.
Even though Medicines Sans Frontiers have stated that the
Ebola lockdown could only have a marginal effectiveness in halting the spread
of Ebola within the region and to other parts of Africa, it seems that various
governments in the region will be implementing their own lockdown procedures
nonetheless. This spells doubly bad for the Ivory Coast where the entire
country’s economy is virtually cocoa based and very dependent of not just
buyers from nearby countries, but also of buyers overseas as well. It looks
like the ongoing Ebola tragedy could have a negative impact on our upcoming
Christmas chocolate consumption as well.
1 comment:
The recent Ebola outbreak could affect the "logistics" of this year's cocoa harvest of Ivory Coast. Would Nestlé raise its chocolate retail prices this Christmas?
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