11/17/2014 at 03:51 PM ET
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Put down the chocolate potato chips, stop sewing your chocolate dresses and listen: The end of cocoa is possibly near.
Two chocolate giants, Mars, Inc. and Swiss-based Barry Callebaut, say that people are consuming more cocoa than farmers are able to produce. A global shortage isn’t that far off, reports The Washington Post.
Last year, the world ate roughly 70,000 metric tons more cocoa than it produced. That number could increase to 1 million by 2020, the two chocolate heavyweights warned, and 2 million by 2030.
The problem lies in supply and demand.
In regard to supply, 70 percent of the world’s cocoa is produced in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, but dry weather in West Africa has greatly decreased production. Plus, there’s a gross fungal disease (frosty pod) that has wiped out between 30 and 40 percent of production. As a result of these less than ideal conditions, cocoa farmers have moved on to more profitable crops.
Meanwhile, we can’t get enough chocolate. It’s in incredibly high demand all over the world — plus, dark chocolate is growing in popularity, and it contains a lot more cocoa than traditional chocolate (the average bar contains about 10 percent, while dark chocolate often contains more than 70 percent).
As chocolate prices continue to rise, science is searching for a solution to combat the shortage: An agricultural group in Central Africa is developing trees that can produce up to seven times the amount of beans traditional cocoa tress can. The only downside? The increased efficiency might be compromising taste.
This is so depressing, we’ll be consoling ourselves in chocolate truffles and photos of the Sexiest Men Alive.
—Morgan Gibson
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