Quotable: “Chocolate Santa Clauses will be the first hit”

THOMAS LOHNES/AFP That’s a quote from a very distraught Andreas Jacobs, the chief owner of one of the world’s largest chocolate manufacturers, Barry Callebaut of Switzerland. Marc Kowalsky explains why for Der Spiegel, which is becoming kind of obsessed with stories like this one: Globalization has now hit the chocolate sector with full force. Just ...

599964_070814_santa_05.jpg
599964_070814_santa_05.jpg

THOMAS LOHNES/AFP

THOMAS LOHNES/AFP

That’s a quote from a very distraught Andreas Jacobs, the chief owner of one of the world’s largest chocolate manufacturers, Barry Callebaut of Switzerland. Marc Kowalsky explains why for Der Spiegel, which is becoming kind of obsessed with stories like this one:

Globalization has now hit the chocolate sector with full force. Just like Barry Callebaut, other chocolate producers are also suffering from the poor hazelnut harvest in Turkey, the growing demand for milk in China and the wheat shortage in the United States — this last caused by more and more of the grain being used to produce biofuel. Meanwhile packaging and transport costs have increased at the same time.

Germany’s critical gummy-bear industry is in trouble, too. The escalating drumbeat of stories about rising food prices around the world is enough to make Niall Ferguson pen a somber ode to Thomas Malthus. But if the upshot of this trend is less consumption of gummy bears, chocolate, and beer, perhaps everything will balance out in the end.   

More from Foreign Policy

An illustration shows the Statue of Liberty holding a torch with other hands alongside hers as she lifts the flame, also resembling laurel, into place on the edge of the United Nations laurel logo.
An illustration shows the Statue of Liberty holding a torch with other hands alongside hers as she lifts the flame, also resembling laurel, into place on the edge of the United Nations laurel logo.

A New Multilateralism

How the United States can rejuvenate the global institutions it created.

A view from the cockpit shows backlit control panels and two pilots inside a KC-130J aerial refueler en route from Williamtown to Darwin as the sun sets on the horizon.
A view from the cockpit shows backlit control panels and two pilots inside a KC-130J aerial refueler en route from Williamtown to Darwin as the sun sets on the horizon.

America Prepares for a Pacific War With China It Doesn’t Want

Embedded with U.S. forces in the Pacific, I saw the dilemmas of deterrence firsthand.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, seen in a suit and tie and in profile, walks outside the venue at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. Behind him is a sculptural tree in a larger planter that appears to be leaning away from him.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, seen in a suit and tie and in profile, walks outside the venue at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. Behind him is a sculptural tree in a larger planter that appears to be leaning away from him.

The Endless Frustration of Chinese Diplomacy

Beijing’s representatives are always scared they could be the next to vanish.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomes Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman during an official ceremony at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, on June 22, 2022.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomes Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman during an official ceremony at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, on June 22, 2022.

The End of America’s Middle East

The region’s four major countries have all forfeited Washington’s trust.