Illegal gold mining is fuelling a chocolate shortage, according to the Financial Times. It reports that many Ghanaian cocoa farmers are abandoning beans for bullion in an illegal gold-mining boom that’s ravaged the country’s cocoa production and helped drive global chocolate prices to historic highs. The cost of cocoa traded in New York trebled between early 2023 and the start of this year, but price controls in Ghana, the world’s second-largest cocoa producer, have denied farmers that windfall. As a result, many are selling their farms to illegal miners who have decimated swaths of land and poisoned much of the country’s water supply. The cocoa industry, civil society and a government-commissioned report all allege that the miners are backed by political elites.
The FT also reports that vineyard values have tumbled as much as a third in the past year as the oversupply of wine weighs down the industry amid sinking global consumption, according to a new report. In its latest wealth report, published on Wednesday, Knight Frank said “few of the world’s key vineyard regions remain unscathed” by a drop in demand for wine, adding that consumption has fallen 12% globally from its peak in 2007. New Zealand’s vineyard values have suffered the most, with prices in the country’s Marlborough region falling 33 per cent last year, according to Kurt Lindsay of Bayleys, Knight Frank’s local partner.
Sky News also has shocking news for postmasters, after it learnt that Nigel Railton, who was parachuted into the role last year, told thousands of Post Office managers this week that he had yet to gain certainty from Whitehall about a £120m increase for this year. The sum was promised in November as part of a strategy to rebuild the Post Office in the wake of the Horizon IT scandal.
Meanwhile, Reuters has Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman’s CEO Lawson Whiting saying on Wednesday that Canadian provinces taking American liquor off store shelves was “worse than a tariff” and a “disproportionate response” to levies imposed by the Trump administration. Several Canadian provinces have taken US liquor off store shelves as part of retaliatory measures against President Donald Trump’s tariffs. And Canadians are steering away from US goods, sports events and trips following the recent imposition of tariffs, which have left them stirred, despite the deep ties between the two countries.
As with so many other outlets, the BBC was also dominated by Trump and his tariffs, reporting that Bank of England experts have warned that they could mean less money in UK consumers’ pockets. Tariffs could hit growth and pose “substantial” risks to the UK and world economies, the Bank’s governor Andrew Bailey has said. His colleagues added trade frictions might hurt companies in the UK and elsewhere.
Finally, Warburtons crumpets have finally returned to the shelves of Waitrose, more than two years after the bakery’s products were exiled in a row over prices, reports The Telegraph.
No comments yet