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March 12, 2025

A Victoria favorite, Cold Comfort Ice Cream, recently announced it will be discontinuing its chocolate flavors—a decision that left many locals disappointed. The reason? The skyrocketing cost of high-quality, fair trade chocolate.

Since 2010, Cold Comfort has been crafting artisanal ice cream using ethical and locally sourced ingredients. But in recent years, the cost of its chocolate—sourced from Valrhona Andoa Noire, an organic producer in Peru—has surged from $20 per kilogram to $60 per kilogram. To understand why, CBC turned to Dr. Sophia Carodenuto, a professor in UVic’s Department of Geography and an authority on cacao production.

A Chocolate Crisis: Climate Change and Corporate Control

Most of the world’s cacao comes from West Africa, where Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana alone produce about 60% of the global supply. But in recent years, cacao farmers in these regions have faced devastating challenges, including:

• Climate change: Rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall, and worsening droughts are making it harder to grow cacao.
• El Niño: This climate pattern has led to extreme weather events that further disrupt cacao farming.
• Crop diseases: Fungal infections and pests are thriving in unstable conditions.

With fewer farms able to produce cacao, supply has plummeted—causing prices to rise as much as 400% in recent years.

However, Carodenuto stresses that small-scale farmers are not benefiting from these rising prices. Instead, large multinational corporations and middlemen continue to dominate the industry, keeping profits high while farmers struggle to make a living. Many young people in cacao-producing countries are turning away from farming altogether because the wages are too low to support a family.

How UVic Researchers Are Fighting for a Sustainable Future

While the challenges facing cacao farmers are significant, there is hope. Carodenuto and her team at UVic Geography - including her recently concluded Belize Field School - are studying agroforestry, a more sustainable way of growing cacao. Unlike monoculture farms, where cacao is grown in vast, single-crop plantations, agroforestry mimics natural ecosystems by growing cacao under the shade of diverse tree species.

This method offers multiple benefits:

• Resilience to climate change: A more diverse forest can better withstand extreme weather and pests.
• Increased biodiversity: A more diverse forest improves the health of the ecosystem and the lives of those around it.
• Diversifying incomes for farmers: Agroforestry allows farmers to grow additional crops—like bananas or avocados—giving them alternative revenue sources when cacao prices fluctuate.

Carodenuto's research is helping to prove that sustainable cacao farming is not only possible but essential for protecting the future of chocolate.

What Can Consumers Do?

While the global cacao crisis may seem overwhelming, Carodenuto emphasizes that consumers have power. By choosing fair trade, organic, and ethically sourced chocolate, buyers can help ensure that profits go directly to farmers rather than corporate middlemen.

For those in Victoria, Carodenuto recommends checking out local businesses like Serene Chocolate, Uncouth Chocolate, and The Chocolate Project, which specialize in sustainable, high-quality cacao products. The Chocolate Project, specifically, is a UVic Geography research partner that carries a slection of over 350 different bars from bean-to-bar artists across the globe. 

Meanwhile, UVic Geography continues its research into ethical supply chains and climate adaptation, working toward a future where chocolate remains an accessible—and fairly traded—treat for all.

To listen to the full CBC interview, visit: