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
If the ad men were quick, Hershey could do a M&M take off of chicken run
It's entirely possible that chocolate consumption exceeded production in 2013. Chocolate can last for years in storage, so this just means that inventories were drawn down.
With finite inventory, it's not possible for this to go on forever. Eventually, unless the government intervenes, prices will rise, thus reducing demand and increasing production until equilibrium is restored.
Ha—at least we know where it is!
Coco Crisp, plays for the Oakland A's.
Kind of reminds me of the old movie WHISKEY GALORE. A ship loaded with whiskey sinks and the islanders have to do without.
It's well hidden......................
Stockpiling chocolate? I tried to stockpile a few bars once (they had a pretty good sale). But after a while, the chocolate started to get white marks on it. Wasn’t very tasty.
Coco stockpiles and processed chocolate are different materials.
You can store dried wheat longer than a loaf of bread as a comparison.
Don’t need a chocolate douser for that.
“consumed more chocolate than produced”....
Oh no! Don’t tell me the Fed Reserve has been making chocolate out of thin air too!
Disclaimer: no first lady jokes were intended or implied...
The Strategic Chocolate Reserves have been raided..............
Until you pointed it out...................;^)
If they had seen the mountains of chocolate sold over Halloween and the stuff left over ...
If we stash all our chocolate reserves in Nawlins, then it is as good as gone.......................
To me, Chocolate comes from Mexico. But these days all of our chocolate comes from West Africa ...
I’m assuming ebola is putting a kink in operations.
I saw an interesting clip a couple of weeks ago ... a bunch of men who had been harvesting cacao pods their whole life but had never tasted chocolate.
Needless to say the pods are bitter.
But the main guy sat them all down and had them eat chocolates. They were wowed!
... I’m sorry.
Bigger than ebola
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