Sylvain Charlebois

We've seen that with cheese, for example, meat products.

They were heists in Canada in recent months related to meat products.

But I'm not surprised with chocolate because we've been talking about chocolate prices for a while.

I mean, the price of chocolate, cocoa futures were almost at $12,000 US a metric ton.

I think it was less than a year ago.

Why?

Because both the Ivory Coast and Ghana couldn't produce enough and demand for cocoa was actually rising, especially in Asia.

And so the previous record was

was about $3,500, $4,000.

So as you can imagine, there was a lot of panic and a lot of manufacturers are paying more for their cocoa.

So that's why a lot of people are seeing higher prices.

But when that happens, of course, criminals are paying attention.

Seriously, do you know anyone in your life that doesn't like chocolate?

Seriously.

Well, exactly.

And so that's why it's easy to find a market.

It's shelf stable.

You don't need a cold chain, an expensive cold chain.

And so whenever I see a heist of meat, I say, well, that group has a market already.

So the black market will actually emerge because of higher prices.