Posted on 11/17/2014 9:00:07 AM PST by Red Badger
Start hoarding those Hershey's Kisses and stockpile your Snickers: The world could soon experience a chocolate shortage.
Mars Inc. and Barry Callebaut, two of the world's largest chocolate makers, say that's the path we're headed down. They cite a perfect storm of factors: Less cocoa is being produced as more and more people are devouring chocolate.
In 2013, consumers ate about 70,000 metric tons more cocoa than was produced, The Washington Post reports, and that deficit could go up to 1 million metric tons by 2020. The Ivory Coast and Ghana produce more than 70 percent of the world's cacao beans, and both countries are experiencing dry weather that limits growth. To make things worse, a fungal disease called frosty pod has destroyed 30 to 40 percent of global cocoa production.
The world's appetite for chocolate isn't going away, and some countries, like China, are starting to consume more and more of the sweet treat. Dark chocolate is also rising in popularity, and that takes much more cocoa to create. Although researchers are trying to create trees that can produce more cacao beans than traditional trees, there's one catch: Chocolate made through this process loses its delicious taste. The only solution is to buy in bulk now and hide your stash where no one can find it. - - Catherine Garcia
70 inch TV’s here I come.....
Again? How many times are they going to run this scare up the flag pole?
Not a bit of truth to this story....S. America has lots....and ya dont have to deal with euros/africans..BONUS!
Till the Stock prices go up ..................then SELL!....................
Maybe we can trade:
If the illegals each bring a few kgs of chocolate..............
Does this make sense?
Running out and a shortage are two different things. I love chocolate but a shortage won’t necessarily cause me to panic.
LOL.....when they get to the border..steal the cacoa and send them back to mexico!!!
My thought as well. If what they’re saying is true, we’re facing price escalations because more people want the same mount of something, but not a complete lack of chocolate. Yet another headline full of ignorance when it comes to basic (as in, grade school level!) economics.
I’ve heard this one many times before. So far, it’s never panned out.
And the problem is, if you stock up on chocolate, it’s EXTREMELY difficult to refrain from eating it.
They probably have stored any surpluses from past years and that 70 tons probably ate into that surplus.
My guess is that this is largely a canard designed to create an artificial shortage so that prices can be raised.
In free markets, the supply and demand equation prevents you from running out of anything unless it is no longer produced at all.
We’ll be fine.
Chocolate Preppers.
Since “discovering” Lindt chocolate bars in a Winter Park candy shop moons ago, I have consistently been amazed at how they can be bought at normal stores for around $2.50 and deliver WORLD CLASS quality year in and out.
Conversely, several fancy chocolatiers have disappointed with their stale, extremely overpriced chocolate (Godiva and Neuhaus, I’m talking to YOU). Have to give props, though, to my latest discovery...Canada’s Roger’s Chocolate. Their Empress Squares and Victoria Cremes are superb.
(I am in complete denial re: the subject of this thread, lol. Does. Not. Compute.)
There’s plenty of land in Soutb American countries.
They should start planting.
Rosie O'Donnell must be on another binge.
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