Posted on 06/22/2012 7:22:22 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
The world is on the brink of a chocolate supply crisis owing to the instability in cacao growing areas and soaring demand in developing countries, an expert has warned.
According to David Guest from the University of Sydney's Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, farming methods used by cacao bean growers are in dire need of modernisation.
He warns that global production of cacao, the raw ingredient in chocolate, must increase nearly a quarter by 2020 to keep up with demand from China and other rising economies.
However, cacao growing regions remain some of the most undeveloped and unstable parts of the world and farmers face significant challenges in bringing production up to speed.
Dark, delicious and decadent, the rich flavour of chocolate has inspired passions, addictions and even literature for more than three thousand years.
Not just appetising, it also has known health benefits, including reducing blood pressure and enhancing psychological happiness.
However the main cacao-producing regions are West Africa, South America, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, all areas vulnerable to threats of climate change, political instability, pests and diseases.
Professor Guest and his colleagues have travelled to some of these areas to promote sustainable farming practices for the prized bean.
He has worked with farmers to select better cacao genotypes, to teach improved methods of crop and soil management and find out what can be done to improve technical support given the constraints growers face.
Without education and access to modern methods, these growers face falling being unable to keep up with rising demand.
"One estimate is that global production will need to increase by one million tonnes per year by 2020 - from 3.6 million tonnes in 2009 and 2010 - to meet global demand," the Daily Mail quoted Guest as telling The Register.
"While controlling disease is relatively straightforward in theory, changing farming practice to become more sustainable and rewarding is a much more complex challenge involving social, economic, political and environmental factors," he added.
Is this going to be like the scene from the “Airplane!” movie where they announced the plane was out of coffee?
http://www.fondantsource.com/archfl12oz1.html artificial chocolate flavor will, in the absence of the real thing, become the new standard. By the time the plants are “fixed” there’ll be no call for the product.
NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!
And here we go again. year before last we were on the verge of a “Chocolate Crisis”.
They just come up with this crap to drive the prices up.
Pray I get a pregnant judge.
And here we go again. year before last we were on the verge of a “Chocolate Crisis”.
They just come up with this crap to drive the prices up.
Guess I better stock up, when I go to Granda later this year.
ping
Well, thank God. It's about time something was someone else's fault!
A friend of mine gave me dessert with chocolate that came from a type of cocoa plant that was thought extinct......It was the most wonderful chocolate I had ever tasted......and I can take or leave chocolate.....so this chocolate shortage won’t bother me.....personally, I like madeleine cookies dipped in passion fruit curd.....yummmm
EEEK and ping!
Is it a coincidence that coca prices have really gone down?
My wife will be inconsolable, devastated, as it were. I can see all the things we will have to give up just to afford chocolate ... gas, food, water. All will be sacrificed for the almighty chocolate fix. And I guess I will miss chocolate just a little. ;-)
Passion fruit curd? Could you kindly elaborate?
Just outlaw chocolate and launch a War on Cocoa. Within no time, you’d have more cocoa than you could ever need, and at at a very reasonable price.
Great, one more thing to add to the list of things to stock up on...
Ammo
Food
Ammo
Water
Ammo
CHOCOLATE
Ammo
CHOCOLATE
Without education and access to modern methods, these growers face falling being unable to keep up with rising demand.What a disaster facing the cocoa growers! If supply falls behind demand, what's going to happen to the price???
What are the cocoa growers going to do???
Oh, wait...
I thought this would be about the blight that’s been threatening cacao trees for the past several years. Turns out it’s only about trying to increase production to meet projected demand.
When supplies fall, the prices will rise. And those that think the chocolate worth the price will pay it.
There are ways to get more chocolate flavor out of a given amount of chocolate... mousse, for example.
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