Cocoa Market

SKILLS FOR ECONOMIC ENQUIRY _COCOA MARKET

Introduction

The following report relates to the programmes of recent developments in the cocoa market. The two programmes used for this report was the ‘Do the coco-motion’ and ‘Chocoholics Beware’. Both programmes were presented well although this report shall share the strength and weaknesses of each explaining how the economic ideas were presented and whether or not they are suitable for a non-specialist to understand.

Main Body

The first programme, Do the coco-motion, gave a very good presentation with regards to economic ideas. The theory of demand and supply was explained well through diagram showing how the diagram would be affected by an increase in demand and a decrease in supply. This was then followed by how a rise and fall in demand and supply is formed through different economic factors. The supply side effects considered were Political issues, Agricultural issues, weather condition and quality of cocoa. These factors were briefly explained and it gives the viewer a good interpretation of how the supply side may increase or decrease. The presentation then went into the demand side effects but only briefly concentrated on the taste of consumers. There was an attempt to explain how economic effects are different within developing countries and less developing countries but this was extremely brief and not easy to understand in terms of the non-specialist. The programme then went into economic term speculators, in which they described really well with a good definition and background. This develops a good understanding for someone unsure of what speculators are and what they do. There was than a quick summary of what had been said which gave a brief overview of the supply and demand side economic effects with regards to price. This overview explained what had been presented in the programme and how the economic effects are related to the price of cocoa.

This programme was good but did have a few weaknesses....