Ecuador farmers cash in on surging cocoa prices

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00:00Forget the gold rush, in Ecuador it's a cocoa rush.

00:04Thanks to surging prices for the chief chocolate ingredient,

00:07a farmer like Sergio Lema saw his income triple in the past two years.

00:12He's now using that higher revenue to make much needed investments.

00:19We're making improvements.

00:21Before, there was no irrigation here.

00:23Now, we have a modern irrigation system on the farm.

00:27And we're also able to improve the crops by applying a lot of organic fertilizers.

00:32Ecuador's gain is West Africa's loss.

00:35Drought, heavy rains and disease in Ivory Coast and Ghana

00:38have scuppered harvests of cocoa over the past two years.

00:41The two countries have produced over half the global output of the bean.

00:45But now, Anacoco, a local NGO,

00:48estimates that around 400,000 Ecuadorian producers and exporters

00:52have benefited from the price surge.

00:55As of April, we've already exported approximately 159,000 tons,

01:01generating $1.4 billion in foreign currency for the country.

01:05We've increased volume by 34 percent

01:08and foreign exchange earnings by nearly 94 percent.

01:14In December 2024, international prices for the crop hit a record $12,000 in December

01:20before falling to 8,500 currently.

01:23What's more, the scarcity has increased the value of cocoa more than three-fold.

01:27Altogether, in 2024, Ecuador's cocoa exports added up to $3.6 billion.

01:33That's 600 million more than mining.

01:36And for the first time in 60 years, the value of cocoa exported exceeded that of bananas.

01:41An impressive feat for the world's largest exporter of the fruit.

01:46And you can see all those seeds,

01:47that our overall燥ers,

01:48that we're making most of all the seeds,

01:49that we're excited to get the fruit.

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