There are few things as universally loved as chocolate. A food that often becomes comfort, habit, reward. In its own way, also a ritual—one that crosses ages, cultures, and moments of the day. We find it in celebrations, in gifts, in small daily breaks.
And yet, precisely for this reason, we rarely stop to think about where it actually comes from.
Behind a chocolate bar or a cup of hot chocolate (in Italian, the solid form is masculine, the liquid feminine) lies a long and complex supply chain that begins with the cultivation of cocoa trees. A supply chain that, in recent years, has entered a phase of significant tension—economic, environmental, and social.
The first signal came from prices.
Between 2023 and 2024, cocoa became one of the most volatile commodities in the world, with record increases driven by insufficient harvests and declining stocks. In just a few months, prices more than doubled, before starting to fall in 2025—while still remaining at historically high levels.
This volatility is not a temporary anomaly, but a sign of a system under strain. On one side, global demand continues to grow, driven by the increasing consumption of cocoa-based products. On the other, supply is struggling to keep up.
Cocoa is a delicate crop. It grows only within a narrow belt of the planet, near the equator, and depends on very specific climatic conditions. Anyone who has planted a cocoa tree with us knows this well. In recent years, these conditions have become increasingly unstable.
Heatwaves, irregular rainfall, and phenomena such as El Niño are disrupting production cycles, especially in West Africa, which accounts for about 70% of global cocoa production.
Added to this are plant diseases such as Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus and black pod disease, which are drastically reducing yields. The impact is visible on the ground: in some areas, production has dropped in recent years from hundreds of sacks to just a few dozen per season. This, too, is reflected in the updates received by those who plant trees with Treedom.
There is also another, less visible but equally decisive factor: the age of plantations. Many cocoa trees are old, less productive, and more vulnerable to environmental stress. Without generational renewal, global production risks declining further.
Complicating the picture is the very structure of the supply chain—an issue particularly relevant to us, given our aim of a greener and fairer world.
Most cocoa is grown in countries such as Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, yet the value of chocolate is concentrated elsewhere: in Europe and North America, where processing, branding, and sales take place.
This means that cocoa farmers often remain in the least remunerated part of the chain. It also means that in producing countries there are still few actors able to transform raw cocoa into finished products, limiting local economic opportunities.
It is a clear paradox: the regions that make chocolate possible rarely benefit fully from it.
In recent years, these factors—climate, disease, economic structure—have converged, creating a perfect storm.
Declining production, unstable prices, struggling farmers, and a system that finds it difficult to adapt. Even when prices fall, as has happened after the peaks of 2024, the effects are not evenly distributed along the supply chain, often leaving producers exposed and vulnerable.
At the same time, the global dependence on a few geographic areas makes the entire system more fragile: a single poor season in West Africa can affect the global market.
In this context, talking about cocoa does not simply mean talking about chocolate.
It means talking about resilient agriculture, biodiversity, and fairness in value distribution. It means rethinking how this supply chain works.
Planting new trees within agroforestry systems helps make plantations more resilient to climate change.
Supporting local communities in processing cocoa means retaining more value in the regions of origin.
And building shorter, more transparent supply chains helps restore balance between producers and consumers.
In other words, it is not just about producing more cocoa.
It is about producing it better.
Chocolate, realistically, will not disappear. But both the way it is produced and what it represents are changing.
What was once a simple gesture now carries greater responsibility. Because behind every bar there is not only a flavor, but a choice. And perhaps this is where we can begin again: with a chocolate that is not only good, but also fairer.