Healthy Raw Cacao Beans

Cocoa soared yesterday amid concerns of a strike on the Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producers. The union in charge of the strike, OPA, called for the strike, which aims to block all cocoa shipments, because of what it sees as inadequate government aid.

In response, both cocoa prices and futures rose dramatically, the former setting 29-year high and the latter setting a new 15-month high.

The OPA is the largest cocoa union in the country, and wields significant political power, but reports from the ground say that the strike hasn’t had much of an effect on the actual delivery of shipments.

“We received a fax yesterday (Monday) from the unions saying there are on strike and telling us to close our factories,” said a cocoa executive in San Pedro. “We’re continuing to work as normal. We’ve not seen anything resembling a strike on the ground. Everything is normal.”

The union, OPA, had been seeking to block all cocoa shipments in an effort to secure more government aid and curb some of the taxes that had been levied upon the industry. This comes in the wake of the Ivory Coast’s government lowering export tariffs to promote trade. The OPA does not believe that these tax breaks do enough to help the common worker. But there has been no evidence of it affecting the shipment or delivery of cocoa at all.

In other cocoa news, cocoa futures rose again yesterday to hit a new 15-month high. The industry is believed to be reacting to a perceived lack of supply, rather than the threat of a strike in the Ivory Coast.