Climate change is threatening cacao crops, researchers say

Why chocolate is ridiculously expensive right now

Rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, and other climate impacts are throttling cocoa production and driving up chocolate prices.

High temperatures, in particular, affect world cocoa production.

Climate change is threatening cacao crops, researchers say

Rising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns in West Africa, which supplies around 70% of the world's cacao, are disrupting the crop, affecting both the quantity and quality of beans — and driving up prices for consumers.

Theobroma means in Greek ‘Food of the Gods’ and it is the one that was chosen in its day to designate a genus of trees that includes 22 species, among them, the one that has the scientific name Theobroma cacao. Its ‘last name’ says it all. The seeds of this tree were already used more than 5,300 years ago in America. They used them as an ingredient for pre-Columbian civilizations such as the Mayans, Aztecs and Incas, among others. And also as a …

Climate Change Is Coming For Your Chocolate, Study Finds

Climate change drove weeks of crop-withering temperatures last year in the West African countries that underpin the world's chocolate supply, hitting harvests and likely further stoking record prices, researchers said Wednesday.

Photo by depositphotos.com New Jersey, USA.- Climate change poses a serious threat to chocolate, according to a report published by ‘Climate Central’, an independent group of scientists and communicators based in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. “A Central Climate analysis found that man-made climate change is causing more excessive heat in West Africa, which produces 70 percent of the world’s cocoa, the main ingredient of chocolate,” the text notes.