Halloween chocolate pricier this year as El Nino hits cocoa crop

Halloween candy is for sale at a CVS store in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 17, 2022. Drew Angerer | Getty Images Cocoa, a vital ingredient for chocolate, is more expensive than it has been in decades, as hotter and drier weather patterns stunt the cacao bean crop’s growth. Cocoa futures surged to $3,786 per metric … Read more

Cocoa farmers face mounting challenges as El Nino rages on

A woman spreads cocoa beans during the sun-drying process in the backyard of her house in Asikasu, Ghana on December 19, 2020. Cristina Aldehuela | Afp | Getty Images El Nino is here to stay — and that’s bad news for cocoa crops which are highly sensitive to weather changes.  Frequent extreme weather events caused … Read more

Cocoa bean trader who lost $100,000 to FTX first witness in SBF trial

Sam Bankman-Fried Trial appears at Federal Court in New York on Oct. 4th, 2023. Artist: Claudia Johnson Marc-Antoine Julliard typically trades cocoa beans. But in the spring of 2021, the London-based commodities broker decided to diversify into cryptocurrency trading. His platform of choice was FTX. Two years later, Julliard stood as the prosecution’s first witness … Read more