The fans of chocolate and the entire industry faces an unprecedented situation with cocoa prices. Recently, futures for this raw material reached a record of US$11,000 per metric ton. This is one of the most important increases in the last five decades. And this also caused a change in the fortunes of the world’s leading chocolate magnates.
The climate situation in Africa, the main supplier of cocoa worldwide, led to worse harvest yields and a supply chain that stagnated. However, according to an analysis by the non-governmental organization Oxfam International, this It allowed the large chocolate companies to pass this increase on to their prices. in costs.
According to the Oxfam report, the fortune of Mars and Ferrero familiesowners of the two main chocolate companies in the world, exceeded the GDP of the two countries that produce the most cocoa globally, Ivory Coast and Ghana.
The economy of Both nations add up to around US$144 billion, according to 2022 data from the World Bank. While, The wealth of these families exceeds US$160,000 million. In turn, according to Oxfam, the companies Lindt, Mondelez, Nestlé and Hershey’s obtained a combined profit of US$6 billion from their chocolate sales.
“As the value that comes from cocoa continues to go into the profits of chocolate companies who then pay it to shareholders or their owners, and producers continue to not have a fair share of this, harvesters will not be able to make a living off of it.” , invest in their farms, send their children to school,” said Anouk Franck, Oxfam’s Policy Director, in a conversation with Fortune.
Likewise, he indicated that the drop in crop yield and the low prices that producers receive led many of them to produce less, according to the same report.
Ivory Coast is the main producer of cocoa of the world. In 2022 I harvested more than 2.2 million tons, according to Our World in Data, while in the 2023/2024 season it has 1.8 million, according to Statista. For its part, Ghana is fighting for second or third place with nearly 1 million tons per year.
The Mars family is the second richest in the United States. Your candy company Mars Inc, founded in 1911, is the largest chocolate company globally. In their portfolio they stand out iconic candies like Snickers, Twix and Skittles.
According to the Bloomberg billionaires ranking, the Mars fortune is distributed among several members of the clan. Jacqueline Badger Mars and John Mars have $45 billion each, while Marijke, Victoria and Pamela Mars have a wealth that exceeds $11 billion. In total, the family has a fortune of more than $117 billion, according to the Forbes list, and is only surpassed by the Waltons, owners of the Walmart chain.
In the other side, The Ferreros are the wealthiest family in Italy with $40.2 billion. NutellaFerrero Rocher, Tic Tac and Kinder are some of the labels that make up its product portfolio, which in fiscal year 2023 had a turnover of more than 17 billion euros.
According to Bloomberg, in the last year the Ferreros experienced an increase in their fortune of more than $6.4 billion.
