Tory minister 'intervened on behalf of cocoa millionaire'

Andrew Mitchell, the international development secretary, reportedly made the intervention after he was asked for help by Anthony Ward, whose firm, Armajaro Holdings, had been banned from trading following allegations that a contractor was involved in smuggling cocoa out of Ghana.

The minister telephoned the British high commissioner in Ghana on the issue, according to internal government documents cited by the Sunday Times, despite the fact it involved British business interests overseas, which is outside Mitchell's remit.

Officials in Mitchell's office also contacted the Foreign Office to say that the matter required "urgent attention".

Henry Bellingham, a Foreign Office minister, subsequently lobbied Ghana's vice-president on behalf of Armajaro Holdings.

A partial trading ban imposed on the company has now been lifted, although it remains in place in one district of Ghana.

Armajaro provided donations totalling £40,000 to Mitchell's parliamentary office between August 2006 and December 2009.

The firm donated £50,000 separately to the Conservative party in 2004.

The Sunday Times said that Ward asked Mitchell to lobby the Ghanian government "at a presidential level" weeks after May's general election.

Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act indicated that Foreign Office civil servants raised questions as to why the British government should intervene on behalf of Armajaro ...

Observer  31 Oct 2010    Corporate State

Choc Finger's Big Bet

With the financial crisis fading into the past, speculation on agricultural commodities markets has returned in force.

Food prices are climbing once again as hedge funds rediscover the immense profits that can be made -- led by a British chocolate baron.

Even by the standards of London's exclusive Mayfair neighborhood, businessman Anthony Ward leads a luxurious lifestyle.

He and his family live in a 500-square-meter (5,380-square-foot) townhouse with five bedrooms, each with its own bath.

There are separate quarters for the staff.

When Ward opens a bottle of wine on his veranda in the evening, it's likely that it comes from his own vineyard at the foot of Paardeberg Mountain near Cape Town.

Ward's fabulous wealth comes as a result of his involvement in the cocoa business.

The 50-year-old Briton with the nickname "Choc Finger" heads Armajaro, a commodities business and hedge fund he co-founded in 1998.

In recent weeks, the hedge fund has caused a furor in the commodities markets.

Traders report that Ward has purchased a vast number of futures contracts for the delivery of 241,000 tons of cocoa worth $1 billion (€770 million).

The cocoa represents about 7 percent of annual world production, enough to supply Germany with chocolate for an entire year.

It was also enough to substantially drive up prices on the cocoa market. Last week, the price of cocoa climbed to a 33-year high ...

Der Spiegel      29 July 2010

The Return of ‘Choc Finger’

In 2002, [‘Choc Finger’] ... [accumulated] 204,000 tonnes of cocoa after two years of poor harvests and political instability in West Africa, before then selling it off and making more than £40 million in two months.

His hedge fund Armajaro is plotting on an even bigger scale, with plans to acquire relatively cheap food production capacity in Africa, effectively betting on the world’s growing population and the expected decline in available farmland and water in years ahead.

The World Development Movement launched a new campaign this week on food commodities, condemning the growing role of hedge funds and investment banks in speculating on food markets and driving volatile price swings.

WDM is calling for Britain to follow recent moves in the US to crack down on speculators and curb betting on food prices in financial markets.

What of producers in poor countries?

Commodities grown for export – such as coffee, tea, cocoa and sugar – have risen in price over the last few years, though in real terms they are still lower than in the period between 1961 and 1977.

This ought to be of benefit to smallholder farmers, especially Fairtrade farmers, but because the majority of them are net buyers of food, the gains of rising commodity prices have generally been undone by increased food prices.

High world market prices do not always result in high farm gate prices, especially the kind of short term spikes driven by speculators, so much of the profits accrue to other players in the supply chain.

Trading Visions  23 July 2010    

Stop bankers from betting on food and causing hunger

Choc finger and the £60K Tory donation:

Cocoa baron link as Andrew Mitchell cuts aid - Exclusive

Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell received money from a trader known as Choc Finger - who is accused of hoarding tons of raw cocoa to send the price of chocolate soaring.

The International Development Secretary, 54, who will today announce he is slashing aid funding to some poor countries, had two donations from London-based hedge fund Armajaro Holdings ...

And in November Mr Mitchell - in charge of Britain's ring-fenced aid budget - got £10,000 from the company to cover the costs of his previous shadow developing world role.

The pre-election donation came despite Armajaro being named in a UN report on "the effects of anticompetitive business practices on developing countries".

According to the Register of Members' Interests, the MP for Sutton Coldfield also got a donation "towards the running costs of my office including travel" in March last year.

Tory Central Office got £50,000 in 2004 from the firm run by the real-life Willy Wonka ...

Daily Mirror  19 July 2010    

British financier Anthony Ward behind £658m cocoa trade

The businessman began his career as a motorcycle dispatch rider before becoming a commodities trader specialising in cocoa and coffee.

The former Chairman of the European Cocoa Association has amassed up to 15 per cent of the word's cocoa stocks in the last ten years.

Mr Ward, who has an annual director's salary of £3.4 million, lives in Mayfair in London with his wife Carolyn. Outside of work he is known to be a passionate rally driver and lover of fine food and wines.

The cocoa beans from his latest trade are expected to be kept in warehouses in The Netherlands, Hamburg, London, Liverpool or Humberside and are the equivalent of the entire supply of the commodity in Europe ...

Telegraph  18 Jul 2010    

Anthony Ward is hungry for African food production

Mystery trader buys all Europe's cocoa

Armajaro reveals $4.2m trust