Kitchen

[Nightowlz]

OH NO!!!. I just read there is a chocolate shortage & we could run out by 2020. Says people are eating more & more & the demand is greater then it used to be. Ebola & fungus problems can also cause the chocolate shortage to happen sooner. Google it if you want to read about it. Says to expect more nougat, nuts etc & less chocolate. I have already noticed this & did not think anything about it until I read about the shortage.

[HonnyBrown]

FunkyHulaGirl posted this a few weeks ago.

Why would Ebola affect cocoa beans?

[Suzeecat]

This will probably be a blessing in disguise for me. But seriously, can't they just grow more?

[BeckiWV]

On 11/24/2014 suzeecat said:

This will probably be a blessing in disguise for me. But seriously, can't they just grow more?

I wondered that too. They cannot plant more cocoa bean trees?? Maybe they take a really long time to mature....

I do love chocolate. It's like its own good group. Very sad....

[WSfan]

Wasn't this supposed to be a problem several years ago? Thought I remember them saying that chocolate would be going up a couple of years ago, of course right around the holidays.

[ValuSkr]

I wonder if this is a scare perpetrated by the industry to justify ever higher prices. Probably not, and I'm too cynical.

[Mominohio]

I'd heard about this a while ago. Good chocolate is already expensive, so I guess we'll just be paying more or eating less. I vote for paying more.

[Nightowlz]

Sorry I did not see the post by FHG. I just read on USA Today that The International Cocoa Organization, a global group made up of cocoa producing and consuming countries, told USA TODAY Network that the prediction is not correct. The Organization also is not predicting anything out of the ordinary for the next five years.

Candy manufacturers Mars Inc. and Barry Callebaut recently warned that consumer demand for chocolate will exceed cocoa supply by 2020, creating a gap in supply and demand of 1 million metric tons. The predicted shortage is attributed to myriad factors such as "disease, drought, rapacious new markets and the displacement of cacao by more-productive crops such as corn and rubber," Bloomberg reported.