The world's confectionary kingpins are going cuckoo over cocoa, the primary--and increasingly scarce--ingredient in chocolate. With Americans addicted to their daily mochas and people in China and India increasingly aping Americans' taste for sweet snacks, the world is consuming more chocolate than ever. But cocoa hasn't become any more lucrative for farmers in West Africa, who do backbreaking work for 80 cents a day in an attempt to harvest a frustratingly finicky crop (cocoa can be grown only within 10 degrees latitude of the equator). "Chocolate consumption is increasing faster than cocoa production--and it's not sustainable," a researcher told attendees at the annual conference of Britain's Academy of Chocolate. (In other news, Great Britian has an Academy of Chocolate.) Cocoa production is slowly picking up in some other areas, including South America and Asia, but experts say it won't be enough to prevent prices from skyrocketing over the next two decades. "In 20 years chocolate will be like caviar," a Ghana-based researcher said. "It will become so rare and so expensive that the average Joe just won't be able to afford it."
Read original story in The Independent | Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010
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