As we head into Easter you may have noticed the price of your seasonal sweet treats like chocolate bunnies and eggs are a bit higher than last year. The main reason is the price of cocoa beans or actually, the price of cocoa futures. They’ve skyrocketed by more than 100% in 2024 alone and tripled over the past year. But why is that and will we be prepared to keep paying higher prices for the sweet stuff? Guests Tina Angelidis: Co-Owner, Adora Chocolates Pia Piggott: Associate Analyst, Rabobank Professor John Dumay: Accounting & Finance, Macquarie Business School Paul Zahra: CEO, Australian Retailers Association  Check out the Chocolate Scorecard:  https://www.chocolatescorecard.com/

Choconomics:  The Rising Cost Of Chocolate

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Coffee prices have climbed on commodity markets but not so much in cafes. Why is that?

The coffee paradox

People are drinking less alcohol, especially Millennials and Gen Z. And the drinks industry has noticed. Low-alc and no-alc drinks make up a tiny fraction of the market. But it’s growing at 7 percent a year. And, as more of us either moderate our drinking or stop altogether, the future for these drinks look bright. But the way they’re advertised, marketed and packaged makes them look very like alcoholic drinks and there’s some concern they may act as a gateway to alcohol. Guests: Simon Strachan, CEO, Drinkwise Elfrun von Koeller, Managing Director & Partner, Boston Consulting Group Andy Miller, CEO, Heaps Normal Dr Ashlea Bartram, Senior Research Fellow, National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction, Flinders University

Low or No Alcohol: The Economics of Moderation

TikTok, the phone app that sends a stream of viral videos to every user, is in trouble in the United States.  The company must either change its Chinese ownership, or leave the American market. In response, TikTok is underlining its economic contribution, in Australia and elsewhere.  So how much difference does it make? Guests: Dr Joanne Gray, Lecturer in Digital Cultures, University of Sydney Ariana Hendry, Co-founder, Beysis Kristian Kolding, Head of Consulting, Oxford Economics Australia Professor Vili Lehdonvirta, Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University

The TikTok Economy

As they say a “diamond is forever”. But does it matter if that diamond is grown in a lab or mined from the Earth? Especially if they both are chemically, physically, and optically identical. And given that cost of living pressures are colliding with consumers’ desire to not compromise on size or quality, more and more Australians can see the logic behind lab grown gems.  In America, lab-grown may have peaked. Guests: Cormac Kinney, Founder & CEO, Diamond Standard Paul Zimnisky, Leading Global Diamond Industry Analyst Talitha Cummins, Founder, the Cut Jewellery Eloise Sohier, Customer, The Cut Jewellery

Diamond Disruption: Lab Grown vs Mined, which gem would you choose?

This year’s Budget tries to do several things at once. In the short term it offers cost-of-living relief but tries not to contribute to inflation. In the longer term it departs from decades of economic orthodoxy by picking industries to invest in.  Specifically, green hydrogen and critical minerals.    But will it work? And how responsible is it? Three of the country’s leading economists offer their views. Guests: Shane Oliver, Chief Economist, AMP Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW Business School Luci Ellis, Chief Economist, Westpac Banking Group

Choconomics: The Rising Cost Of Chocolate

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