Because of drought, disease, soaring demand from emerging markets, and displacement of cocoa acreage by more profitable crops such as corn and rubber, global chocolate giants Mars Inc. and Barry Callebaut warn that demand will outpace supply by an additional 1 million tons per decade going into the future. Between 1993 and 2007 the price of cocoa averaged $1465 per tons – between 2007 and 2013 this price increased by 87% to average $2736 per tons. Drought poses a serious risk to the industry as is indicated in a report by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which states that in Ghana and Ivory Coast where the majority of the world’s cocoa is produced, temperatures will increase by 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2050 causing serious negative effects upon the industry. However, even more serious is the threat of disease. Frosty pod decimated Costa Rica’s cocoa industry in just two years, and Witches’ Broom caused the collapse of Brazil’s industry resulting in output falling from 300,000 tons per year to 130,000 tons per year in a decade. At the same time demand is soaring. In 2010 China consumed 40,000 tons of cocoa per year, and by 2014 this demand will nearly double to 70,000 tons, while India consumed 25,000 tons in 2010 and will consume 40,000 tons this year. To read further about how industry and science are attempting to combat these conditions through the reformulation of products and the development of disease-resistant strains of cocoa:
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