Potential chocolate catastrophe looms
World chocolate production could fall dramatically if diseases which have already devastated cacao crops in some countries are allowed to spread, an expert warned today.
South American cultivation of cacao, the raw material used for producing chocolate, has been hit hard by infections over the past 15 years, said Dr Gareth Griffith. of the University of Wales in Aberystwyth.
Increased trade and improved transport links could allow fungal infections such as Witches Broom Disease (WBD) and Frosty Pod Disease, which can cause near total crop failure, to spread, he said.
Now he is urging the industry to learn from its mistakes and undertake a risk assessment in a bid to minimise the spread of infection.
Writing in the summer 2004 edition of Biologist magazine, Dr Griffith describes how the rapid spread of disease from Surinam to Ecuador and Trinidad in the early 20th century led to a halving of cocoa production within a decade.
Witches Broom Disease was given its name because the growing parts of the cacao tree become swollen and branched, making it look like a witchs broom.
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