Greedy Chocolate Traders Make Us All Sick

You don’t need to know the ins and outs of hedge funds and high finance to be acutely aware that the global financial sector hasn't much to be proud of at present. Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learnt through an article in the Independent on Sunday (11 July) about the profits being made by hedge funds and others of their ilk trading cocoa on the London commodities market. The story was also covered recently by Newsnight, focusing on a specific commodities trader given the moniker “Chocfinger”. If only this was all about pantomine Bond villans.

The greed of a few intent on making profit at all costs is inflating the price of cocoa (and this applies to myriad other foodstuffs that are grown or consumed by the world's poorest) - the results of which are several-fold. Firstly, already wealthy speculators are further lining their pockets by allegedly manipulating the price of cocoa. Secondly, none of the increased profits are seen by the cocoa growers and their workers. Thirdly, fluctuations in the price of foodstuffs makes it difficult for local producers to plan their resources effectively. And perhaps most importantly the artificial inflation of basic food prices has a catastrophic impact on the ability of the world's poorest people to feed their families. We all heard how the rapid increase in the price of basic foods, such as rice and wheat, a few years ago pushed millions further into poverty and hunger.

As the article indicates, fair-trade campaigners and anti-poverty activists are calling on governments to step in to prevent speculators from inflating food prices for their own ends. Surely it is time this happened. It seems particularly distasteful that fat cats are getting even fatter by creaming profits from an artificial market in the most basic foodstuffs while those whose labour provides us with the food we eat see none of these profits, or even worse, go without themselves.