In 2026, prices of oil, gold, wheat, beef, and other commodities hit all-time highs, fueled by the inflationary effects of the Iran war. But one global good has plummeted - cocoa. In the last year, prices have fallen 70%. An industry riddled by moral and social challenges, including child labour exploitation, carbon footprint, and deforestation, is now also under economic threat. The future of West African cocoa, in particular, being subject to smuggling, storage constraints, financing challenges, and global regulatory hurdles, is falling into question. Trade Finance Global (TFG) sat down with Dr Tedd George, CEO of Kleos Advisory and a regional and industry expert, to discuss the regulatory, financial, and ecological frameworks needed to make West African cocoa sustainable.

The sustainability paradox of West African cocoa

Trade Finance Talks

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Trade Finance Talks

## Transcript

What are the structural shifts that need to take place to combat child labour across West Africa in terms of cocoa production? 1.56 million children work in cocoa, and I think it's very important to distinguish between child labour and child work. I'm Daha Sanmaz, a reporter at Trade Finance Global. I'm Dr. Ted George. My background is very much in Africa and in soft commodities, particularly cocoa and increasingly ESG. This is Trade Finance Talks, your go-to podcast on cross-border trade.

Brought to you by Trade Finance Global. Welcome to Trade Finance Talks. I'm Daha Sanmaz, a reporter at Trade Finance Global. I'm joined today by Dr. Ted George, CEO of Clios Advisory, who is here to discuss sustainable production across West Africa. Welcome to Trade Finance Talks, Ted. Thanks for having me, Daha. Looking forward to it. Ted, could you please introduce yourself and tell me a bit about your background?

Yes, so I'm Dr. Ted George. My background is very much in Africa and in soft commodities, particularly cocoa and increasingly ESG. I was a linguist to start out with, Spanish and Portuguese, and that's what got me first interested actually in Africa via Angola. I worked at the Economist Intelligence Unit as an economist in the Africa teams, but also in commodities, which is where I really built the expertise in cocoa. And then for eight years, I was head of research at the Pan-African Bank, Echo Bank, which is all across sub-Saharan Africa. I had a team looking at the FICC space.

I very much covered cocoa very closely there in trade finance. I was also head of the representative office in London. And then about seven years ago, I set out my own advisory, KLEOS Advisory. I am the chief narrative officer, as I self-starred myself, with a large focus on strategic advisory and thought leadership, particularly working with banks, international organizations, corporates, fintechs, very much in the African space, commodity space, but also a fair amount of ESG and fintech as well. And where they all come together, for example, the project, the Africa Cocoa Exchange, that's where I can excel.

So quite varied what I do, but I think Africa and cocoa are very much in my blood. We will be talking about sustainable cocoa production across West Africa. I wanted to kick off by asking you, so when we talk about ESG, we always talk about the environment and biodiversity, climate change, things like that. The S actually gets forgotten a lot of times. So I wanted to ask, how does the S in ESG contribute to unsustainable production, especially in emerging markets like in West Africa? Yeah, well, you're so right. The S in ESG is often overlooked. And I think part of the reason is because the environmental concerns are so huge,

particularly if you're thinking of carbon emissions. As soon as you have agriculture, you're chopping down forests, you're massively increasing emissions, and also the ability...

The sustainability paradox of West African cocoa

Transcript

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The sustainability paradox of West African cocoa

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.