Bittersweet Realities

The Cocoa Crisis Behind World Chocolate Day 2025

- Ayushi Maharshi

Every year on July 7th, chocolate lovers around the world celebrate World Chocolate Day — a global occasion marked by exchanging chocolates, trending hashtags, and sweet memories shared across social media. It's a day devoted to indulgence and nostalgia, symbolising warmth, joy, and simple pleasures. But this year, the festivities come with an undercurrent of global concern. Behind the sweetness lies a bitter truth — the cocoa industry is facing an unprecedented crisis that can no longer be ignored.

According to the latest May 2025 report by the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO), global cocoa production has dropped by a staggering 12.9%, falling to 4.368 million tonnes for the 2023-24 period. This is one of the sharpest declines the industry has seen in decades. The impact has rippled across the supply chain, with cocoa processing — known as grindings — also down by 4.8%, signalling a widening gap between demand and supply.