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Page added on November 16, 2014
Peak Chocolate?
Chocolate manufacturers have announced what may be the greatest fear of chocolate-lovers around the globe — the world is running out of chocolate. In fact, the chocolate deficit, whereby farmers produce less cocoa than the world eats, are becoming the norm.
The Washington Post reports that the problem has been compounding for some time. Last year, the world ate roughly 70,000 metric tons more cocoa than it produced. Leading chocolate manufactures, Mars and Barry Callebaut, warn that by 2020, this number could swell to 1 million metric tons, a more than 14-fold increase; by 2030, they think the deficit could reach 2 million metric tons.
Why exactly are we running out of chocolate? Bloomberg reports that higher demand is part of the problem. Demand for chocolate is increasing, as the United States seems to have an insatiable appetite that keeps chocolate producers busy.
However, the U.S. isn’t the only country heavily consuming chocolate goods. In the Asia-Pacific region, home to more than half the world’s population and 12 percent of chocolate demand, each person will eat 0.4 pounds in 2014, double the amount of a decade earlier. Sales in China will also rise 6.9 percent to a record 193,100 tons this year, and expand 6.6 percent further in 2014, the researcher said. Europe also loves their chocolate. The 2.2 million tons eaten last year in Western Europe will increase by 0.5 percent this year before expanding 0.6 percent next year.
If a massive increase in demand isn’t enough to strain cocoa producers, dry weather will certainly do it. Dry weather in Ivory Coast and Ghana, the biggest cocoa growers, has made it more difficult for producers to have a healthy crop. This has led to lower output at cocoa farms. To top the dry weather, a nasty fungal disease known as frosty pod hasn’t helped either. The International Cocoa Organization estimates it has wiped out between 30 percent and 40 percent of global cocoa crops. Because of all this, cocoa farming has proven a particularly tough business, and many farmers have shifted to more profitable crops, like corn, as a result.
Interestingly, though cocoa is in high demand across the globe, many who work on farms that harvest the crop have never eaten a chocolate product.
So what can be done to ensure the world doesn’t run out of chocolate? Unfortunately, nothing in regards to traditional cocoa. However, an agricultural research group in Central Africa is developing trees that can produce up to seven times the amount of beans traditional cocoa trees can. Sadly, the more efficient tress will most likely be unable to keep the same strong flavor. Bloomberg notes that the chocolate’s flavor is expected to be much more mild.
“Efforts are under way to make chocolate cheap and abundant — in the process inadvertently rendering it as tasteless as today’s store-bought tomatoes, yet another food, along with chicken and strawberries, that went from flavorful to forgettable on the road to plenitude.”
What do you think the future holds for chocolate production? Will the world run out of traditional cocoa trees and be replaced with mass-producing replicas of a once robust industry?
Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/1613428/world-running-out-of-chocolate-the-biggest-chocolate-manufacturer-says-yes-warns-of-chocolate-deficit/#XxgZY7UmWArTptLe.99
12 Comments on "Peak Chocolate?"
Norm on Sun, 16th Nov 2014 4:30 pm
Lets make syinthetic chocolate. Then we have enough to eat more chocolate, and also run our cars on it.
J-Gav on Sun, 16th Nov 2014 5:39 pm
Peak peak? Peak of all peaks? Where are we going here?
Richard on Sun, 16th Nov 2014 5:48 pm
I sure enjoy packets or bags of M&M’s chocolate, not so much the peanut version.
If this isn’t hysteria, damn, this is a serious problem for those that don’t drink, smoke or touch illegal drugs.
I need a dose sugar, refined that is such as the stuff used for M&M’s, and where does that cocoa originate from yeah west Africa.
Nothing else will do.
Northwest Resident on Sun, 16th Nov 2014 6:13 pm
J-Gav — When we hit peak bullshit, that’s when we’ll really be in trouble.
Beery on Sun, 16th Nov 2014 6:45 pm
Unlike crude oil, chocolate is a renewable resource.
JuanP on Sun, 16th Nov 2014 7:29 pm
I do like my bittersweet chocolate. I admit to eating gourmet dark chocolates on a daily basis all my adult life. I eat as much as I can now because I think it will become expensive and hard to get in the future. Dark chocolate is one of the very few things I’d miss in a collapsing world. That and infinite hot showers.
Perk Earl on Sun, 16th Nov 2014 7:34 pm
“The Washington Post reports that the problem has been compounding for some time. Last year, the world ate roughly 70,000 metric tons more cocoa than it produced.”
Therefore 70,000 metric tons of cocoa must have been sold from previous year/s storage? Because of course we can’t eat what doesn’t exist. Will that lead to greater deficits in succeeding years?
Could people’s gland that produces endorphins atrophy without sufficient chocolate supply?
I like Ritter’s butter biscuit. Made in Switzerland, they use giant stones to smooth the chocolate and then pour it over a butter biscuit. Very decadent. (2nd choice is Toblerone) I expect to be gnawing on some from our disaster cache post collapse while sipping Drambuie.
Makati1 on Sun, 16th Nov 2014 7:52 pm
Sure glad we have 5 or 6 healthy cocoa (Theobroma cacao) trees on our farm. I like chocolate and would hate to have to give it up. Also coffee trees of several types to feed that habit.
Both chocolate an coffee are getting more and more expensive but local chocolate and coffee are still cheap and just as good, once you get the brainwashed “Let’s have another cup of coffee. Let’s have a cup of Nescafe.” out of your mind.
JuanP on Sun, 16th Nov 2014 8:15 pm
Mak, That is really, really cool. Coffee and chocolate are irreplaceable! In Uruguay we have to import them from Brazil because it is too cold to grow them. Have you collected and processed the beans yet or are those trees still growing?
Makati1 on Sun, 16th Nov 2014 8:36 pm
JuanP, they are producing, but we give the harvest away for now as we don’t have the resources nearby to do it ourselves. It is just one of the ways we are building up good relations with our future neighbors.
hvacman on Mon, 17th Nov 2014 5:28 pm
The miracle of modern technology, including horizontal agriculture and cocao bean fracking will save the day. The US-CIA ( US Chocolate Information Agency) now estimates that by 2020, the US will be EXPORTING chocolate and Bismarck, ND will become the new Hershey, PA:)
Makati1 on Mon, 17th Nov 2014 6:48 pm
Hahahaha. Thanks hvacman, I can always use a good chuckle. ^_^