International Chocolate Day is celebrated today, September 13, but did you know that this delicacy that practically everyone likes seems to have its days numbered? Apparently there is an investigation that would have revealed when chocolate will run out due to a shortage of cocoa , the main ingredient for making chocolate.
When will the chocolate run out?
Chocolate is one of the most consumed foods in the world. An estimated 8.5 million tonnes a year , this figure may drop drastically in just 20 years.
Apparently, a French geopolitologist, who for years was a member of the board of directors of Doctors without Borders called Virginie Raisson, was the one who a year ago uncovered the “alarm bell” about chocolate or rather, about the collection of the cocoa in Africa as he explains in his book «2038. Atlas on the future of the world ».
According to Raisson, in 2038 there will be no more chocolate for everyone . Or rather: the elites will continue to have access to quality chocolate that will still be made with the best African cocoa. While the vast majority of the world’s population will find themselves consuming industrial chocolate bars in which cocoa will be increasingly replaced by other ingredients such as nuts, sugar, milk, raisins, rice and various types of oil, including palm oil. .
Why won’t there be enough cocoa for everyone?
Apparently there will be a series of reasons that combined will cause the shortage of cocoa to continue making chocolate. According to Raisson, the first is that in emerging countries the demand for chocolate is increasing exponentially . In China alone, average cocoa consumption, which in 2010 barely exceeded 40 grams per person per year, had already increased by 75% in 2014.
On the other hand, climate change is another factor to take into account to understand why the end of chocolate. “To grow,” Raisson recalls, “cocoa beans need a lot of rain, but the rainy tropics are declining.”
What can be done to prevent the chocolate from running out?
The recommendations of the French geopolitologist to avoid that we end up without chocolate in the world go through focusing on research , to develop cocoa beans resistant to climate change . Fortunately, in Africa and Europe there are already several public and private centers that take care of this: in France, for example, the subject is already on the agenda of Inra, the Institut national de la recherche agronomique. The only problem is that for now the chocolate produced with these seeds does not taste great.
The second thing, however, is to pay better to the cocoa producers, who are 90% small plantation owners and with what they earn they can no longer invest in tools to increase the harvest and lastly they also need the one that some large brands of the multinational chocolate industry work , as they are already doing, towards sustainable production projects.
