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Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

face2faceafrica.com

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Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#101

Post by brodock »

jariel wrote: post #30
bsanr2 wrote: post #19

This is similar to the situation with Global South coffee exports, wherein actual growers only receive a fraction of the revenue from consumer sales (despite the relatively cheap and easy value-add of roasting or conversion into instant coffee) because of logistical concerns, and because Europeans and American just plain do not buy African roast coffee when it appears on their shelves. If these countries were to deci…

Coffee is a commodity. Marketers will re-brand their roasts pretty quickly and convince us all that 'it's better'. Coco is special in that production is limited.

Good coffee is not abundant. Not the crap you will find in local supermarket, that will almost always taste the same. It's like cheap wine.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#102

Post by kwere »

ArkanExplorer wrote: post #95
fogihujy wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first response will probably be for the chocolate producers to try to source the raw materials from other sources. This may or may not result in production ramping up elsewhere, or even new producers appearing as increased prices could make production financially viable in places it previously wasn't. Depending on how the markets react, prices may go up, and many of the really cheap brands could disappear from th…

CO2 tariffs: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/how-an-eu-carbon-borde... Ghana's electricity supply is 51% fossil fuel, whereas Switzerland is 2.5%. But its a lot easier to build solar plants in Accra than in Bern... I think that Europe is at a fundamental disadvantage over the medium/long-term, due to the burden of its welfare states. Its surprising to see that taxes over basically all categories are lower in Gh…

maybe we need a individual capitalization pension plan

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#103

Post by rob74 »

Chris2048 wrote: post #85
TeMPOraL wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other points are already addressed in different comments, but to address this one: > Ghana doesn't have all of the layers of industry necessary to support development and export of products i.e. there are no market buyers at any reasonable price. Per the article, they literally control half of the world's cocoa. This means they get to define what "a reasonable price" is, as long as the rest of the world wants to keep…

The first question is: where are the main markets for chocolate? If Ghana loses access to a large percentage of the global chocolate market, controlling half the supply is as much a liability. The second question is: Is there any reason cocoa can't be grown elsewhere, or the second biggest producer can't increase production?

Yeah, I already see other tropical-zone countries cutting down even more rain forest to make space for cocoa plantations (in addition to the rain forest they are already cutting down or burning for e.g. palm oil plantations). That's not really the desirable outcome here I think...

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#104

Post by aaron695 »

> Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

This is not true.

He only said they are going to try and process some cocoa in Ghana.

"we intend to process more and more of our cocoa in our country" https://youtu.be/gs_dD7qKfX8?t=317

It'll take decades and they will grow more to supply both markets, if their market is successful.

What's with the hysterical headlines - "Awkward moment when President of Ghana says they intend to process cacao", "Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland", "Ghana President shuts down Swiss President", "Ghana President Publicly Denied Cocoa Export to Switzerland."

I thought maybe short sellers, but I can't see a link.

Is it just some addictive meme, I guess the random covid bits are like an attack vector or something?

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#105

Post by DiogenesKynikos »

dahfizz wrote: post #90
throwaway210222 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I often hear this [phrasing] in the 'first world' and surely you don't 'allow' or 'disallow' internal policies to an sovereign nation?" Forget about the third-world, right now the USA is not-allowing Germany the right to build a pipeline with Russia! First-world - check, sovereign - check, allies - check.

> the USA is not-allowing Germany the right to build a pipeline with Russia! The USA is threatening trade sanctions if Germany builds the pipeline. I would not call that "not-allowing". That seems to be OP's whole point. The US is responding as a sovereign nation to actions of other sovereign nations. Phraseology like "allow" and "disallow" are not accurate. If Germany does the cost-benefit analysis and decides to ca…

The US is exploiting its centrality in the international financial system, though. No other country uses secondary sanctions so extensively to dictate to other countries who they may and may not trade with.

When the US pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, for example, it essentially ordered European companies not to trade with Iran. Even European companies that have no business in the US are afraid to do business with Iran, because American secondary sanctions will still hit them. No European bank will lend to a European company that does business with Iran, out of fear of American sanctions.

These sorts of actions will eventually provoke a reaction: either the establishment of alternate financial systems or retaliatory sanctions.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#106

Post by KaiserPro »

jelling wrote: post #40
tziki wrote: post #10

I wish them success, but my prediction is that in a few years they'll have no successful products and the world's chocolate makers have found new suppliers. You can't just make a decision to create successful products.

Same. I am concerned they are overlooking how much marketing mind-share Switzerland has globally for chocolate. Ghana could get there but it will not happen overnight, more like a generation. Distribution will also take time. Give that cocoa is their number 3 export - and I suspect most of that is in raw form - I really hope this doesn’t backfire. They need foreign currency. A wiser path might be to build up global c…

You're missing a step here. Yes brand recognition is powerful for consumers.

But I don't think ghana is going to be doing B2C stuff just yet. I'd assume that they are going to export cocoa products, as it would allow them to charge a much higher price, keeping more money in the country

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#107

Post by skocznymroczny »

jopsen wrote: post #84
oblio wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So the book argues that when developing countries are pressured into free trade agreements This should have been obvious since the Opium Wars and the Opening of Japan (see Commodore Matthew Perry). All developed countries are pro free trade for markets where they are strong and fiercely protectionist where they are not (or they consider those markets strategic priorities). I'm from Romania. Romania joined the EU in…

Are those supermarkets really all that French or Belgian anymore? In practice, many large companies are owned by investors from all over the world looking for diversification.

The specific ownership and the details are irrelevant, what matters is that a large chunk of their profits is extracted out of the country and doesn't get reinvested.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#108

Post by khuey »

killtimeatwork wrote: post #87
oblio wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So the book argues that when developing countries are pressured into free trade agreements This should have been obvious since the Opium Wars and the Opening of Japan (see Commodore Matthew Perry). All developed countries are pro free trade for markets where they are strong and fiercely protectionist where they are not (or they consider those markets strategic priorities). I'm from Romania. Romania joined the EU in…

That's where China was smart I guess. They didn't sign any treaty which forced them into free trade or IP protection, but instead slowly allowed their industries to build up via IP theft and strong protectionism. Now they have giant companies on par with the West's. Whereas everyone who joined the EU in the decade of 2000 (and the Washington Consensus before that in the nineties) is now a pawn of the Western capital…

They did sign those treaties (e.g. with WTO membership), they just ignored them.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#109

Post by baryphonic »

DSingularity wrote: post #37
oblio wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So the book argues that when developing countries are pressured into free trade agreements This should have been obvious since the Opium Wars and the Opening of Japan (see Commodore Matthew Perry). All developed countries are pro free trade for markets where they are strong and fiercely protectionist where they are not (or they consider those markets strategic priorities). I'm from Romania. Romania joined the EU in…

WW3 was fought with soft power and economics. Now some countries own other countries and nobody is complaining.

Considering that at the end of WWII, large swathes of global population were subject to colonial rule, particularly in Africa and Asia, I wonder how the current situation you describe compares.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#110

Post by sandworm101 »

m12k wrote: post #15

I'm reading the book The Divide at the moment. It makes the argument that it takes time and the right conditions to build up an industry - infrastructure needs to be built, education and a skilled labor pool with the necessary know-how as well. To begin with, a fledgling industry in a developing country cannot compete with those of already industrialized countries - these are already so effective that they can underc…

>> a fledgling industry in a developing country cannot compete with those of already industrialized countries

Except that often they do. With lower safety/environmental standards, lower wages, and lower expectations many "developing" countries can undercut the labor markets of developed countries, operating advanced manufacturing at far reduced costs. Many would ague that is exactly how China has risen to power.

A reliance on export of raw resources is also no telltale of a country still "developing" its economy. Canada is heavily dependent on resource extraction and export. Canada is also a former colony. But would anyone here dare say Canada is a "developing" economy?

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