Chocolate’s getting hotter

The price of cocoa, up by 82% in 12 months, is at a 46-year high. The industry is now abuzz with hyperbole, including predictions of prices doubling again to $10,000 a ton, though its unlikely. As history reminds us, the cocoa beans traded a year ago for $2,500, and in 2000 they changed hands at just $650. Anyway, a puzzled cocoa production, trade companies’ disarray and disoriented markets would result in the largest shortfall in at least 65 years.