Official News page 6

REAL LIFE NEWS: REALLY, REALLY, REALLY BAD NEWS ABOUT CHOCOLATE

by Hazed

This is terrible news. Somebody has cornered the market in cocoa in Europe, which means chocolate prices could rise in the run up to Christmas. Oh no!

Anthony Ward is a hedge fund manager. Yes, even before his dastardly move on our favourite confectionary, he was one of those dodgy characters that contributed to the credit crunch...

His fund has just spent $992m on cocoa, grabbing enough to make five billion bars. That's pretty much the entire stock held in 35 warehouses of the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange. If he decides to hang onto the stock while prices rise, it could lead to shortages: the next African cocoa harvest is not due until late September and October so there are concerns within the industry of a continued shortage during the time when companies will be buying stocks for Christmas.

If you want to read more about the technical and financial aspects of this terrible prospect, go here.

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