Anthony Ward, founder and CEO of Armajaro who just took delivery of all that cocoa, gave an interview in January that give some insight into why he bought so much cocoa. He is clearly betting on future shortages and hopes to cash in on the likely profits.
On the other hand there are voices that claim Anthony Ward ended holding the bag (or better over 3 million bags of cocoa) after a deal went wrong. Globe and Mail author Paul Waldie claims that Ward ended up on the “wrong side of a private hedging arrangement with Swiss chocolate-maker Barry Callebaut AG.” On Monday, news surfaced that almost half of the cocoa in question had been passed on to Barry Callebaut. Since then, the London price of cocoa has dropped by almost 6 percent.