With chocolate flowing from every aisle of every store you step foot in, it’s hard to believe that there’s a shortage of the deliciously rich candy. But the numbers don’t lie: more chocolate is being consumed than produced - 70,000 metric tons to be precise, according to The Atlantic. Unfortunately for chocoholics, this number is only expected to climb higher and higher, with 1 million metric tons expected to be the deficient by 2020.
Companies are feeling the pinch
Companies everywhere have had to accomodate for this chocolate shortage by unfortunately upping their prices. Even small companies like Kelli's Gifts have seen an increase in their chocolate cost, proving that no matter the size of the company, this shortage is affecting everyone.
This issue is also affecting companies in that in that consumers may now be apprehensive to buy the decadent treat if the price continues to rise. This being said, it’s important for consumers to understand that companies ultimately can’t control the climbing prices
What's to blame for the chocolate shortage?
Besides the world just simply loving chocolate so much that they’re eating more and more of it by the minute, why is the production of chocolate slowing down? It really shouldn’t be surprising that drought is to blame for this shortage. West Africa, the world’s leading producer of cocoa, has been suffering from drought for quite some time, and it’s not expected for the situation to get any better any time soon.
In what could be described as an almost catch-22 situation, farmers in West Africa have found themselves pushed into poverty as a result of the drought. However, they can't find much of an incentive to continue growing cocoa because they aren't being offered enough money. This, in turn, has put West Africa in a difficult situation.
Changing the chocolate situation
The only thing that will help with the impending doom of chocolate becoming as expensive as caviar is for cocoa farmers to receive a higher salary. Currently, farmers aren’t being given enough of an incentive to want to continue producing cocoa, according to The Guardian. The families of cocoa farmers are already in deep poverty, and most are moving into cities so they can better provide for their children and send them to school.
Until farmers receive better pay, what we can do as consumers is simple (maybe). It’s time to start treating chocolate as more of a treat and less of an everyday necessity. Instead of nabbing that huge bag of variety chocolates from the grocery store, opt for a gourmet chocolate bar. But don’t eat the whole thing in one sitting, as tempting as it is! Or choose a treat that tastes like chocolate, but isn’t 100% cocoa, like Sheila G’s Brownie Brittle.
If this sounds like a difficult feat, be prepared to start having to save money for your chocolate obsession. Maybe even open up a savings fund just for chocolate.