Is our supply of chocolate in doubt?
The world wide forecast is for a 30% increase in the demand for cocoa by 2020, but can supply keep up? The vast majority of cocoa is produced by small family owned farms in some of the world’s poorest nations, with low yields and poor productivity. Studies show that to supply the average Australian with our regular chocolate demand of 5 bars per week, an additional 10 cocoa trees will need to be planted each year – let alone to cope with our annual Easter chocolate binge. Happily, though, the International Cocoa Organisation suggests that we have nothing to worry about. Existing stocks of beans means there is no threat to the supply of cocoa to chocolate manufacturing in the short to medium term.
For more delicious choc-onomic stats visit icco.org.
Happy Easter from the team at NineSquared!