Ladies and gentlemen today I bring some worrying news… your chocolate bars may very well soon be extinct. There is a major crisis in the world of cocoa and that is going to change everything. Imagine the Christmas without a selection box or an Easter without chocolate eggs.  This emergency on planet Earth is still being debated but what is for sure is that the price is going up on cocoa, because the supply is going down.

There are a number of issues as to why we are seeing this, that I will be getting into today. If however things are starting to take a turn for the worst in terms of cocoa availability, it is time that the world’s very best inventors get their heads together to save this essential crop. 

The Issues Around Growth 

For cocoa to be grown there are certain conditions which need to be created. Cocoa crops take between three and five years to grow and they must be done within a 10 degree latitude of the equator, at least for best results and all growth. Now the issue around the growth of cocoa is that based  on the length of time and the incredibly limited area of the world where this can be grown, it isn’t a winning solution for growers. In fact on that same land they can plant other crops which they can harvest and sell quicker, thus making more money from their patch of land. Cocoa is also a very labor intensive crop to grow. 

Worrying Figures From The Ivory Coast 

This year we have seen some very worrying news from the Ivory Coast that their cocoa harvest has fallen since last year and looks set to do the same next year. Again this is because many crop growers have decided that there is not the money in cocoa that there once was, and their arable and healthy land can be used to grow faster and more valuable crops, this may continue in other countries around the world. 

The Fix 

In order to avoid chocolates being something that we only ever see in a museum, there needs to be more value given to cocoa. Now this of course could mean that the product becomes far less purchased because of the eventual costs which will be included to the consumer. What we would like to see however is food companies taking something of a hit on profits and taking ownership of the land themselves. As foolish as a notion this may appear, the reality is that a failure to do so could very well see their products taken off the shelves and disappear entirely. 

It is absurd to think that something as popular as cocoa could possibly disappear but that is sadly the reality of the situation. Now is very much the time to act if we want to save our chocolate bars,  because slowly but surely the main ingredient is becoming in very short supply indeed.