Questão 26

Leia o texto e examine os gráficos para responder às questões de 21 a 26. If you're a chocoholic you may have noticed that your habit has lately become more expensive. The price of cocoa began creeping up $\in$ the second half of 2022. Since then it has doubled, reaching an all-time high $\in J$anuary 2024. That steep rise spells trouble for the chocolate business and sweet-toothed consumers alike. Climate patterns are partly to blame for rising costs. Cocoa is mostly produced by small farmers $\in W$est Africa. Ghana and Ivory Coast grow about 60% of the world's crop. Last season, $\in 2023$, the El Niño weather pattern led to unseasonably high temperatures and rainfall that ravaged crops. Total rainfall $\in I$vory Coast's cocoa-growing areas $\in 2023$ was the highest $\in 20$ years, according to Gro Intelligence, a data firm. This year El Niño has brought severe drought to the cocoa farms, reducing production further. ING, a bank, estimates that this year the gap between global production and consumption will be at its widest since at least 2014. Extreme weather patterns have hit other commodities, too. Droughts $\in T$hailand and India are affecting rice plantations. Torrential rain $\in B$razil, the world's biggest sugar exporter, has affected its exports. Besides, other price pressures are specific to the cocoa industry. Swollen-shoot virus and black-pod disease killers of cocoa trees - spread across Ghana and Ivory Coast during heavy rainfall last year. Tropical Research Services, a research company, estimates that by the end of 2023 the swollen-shoot virus had infected around 20% of Ivory Coast's cocoa trees. (www.economist.com, 28.02.2024. Adaptado.) GRAPH 1: Price, $'000 per tonne. Graph showing cocoa price from 1990 to 2024, with a sharp increase from 2022. GRAPH 2: Production, 2023, % of world output. Bar chart showing cocoa production percentage by country for 2023, with Ivory Coast and Ghana being the largest producers.

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