A chocolate-lover's biggest nightmare is surfacing - the world is [slowly] running out of chocolate.
The world's two biggest chocolate makers, Mars Inc. and Barry Callebaut, announced that the world is consuming more chocolate than is being produced in what is considered the biggest chocolate deficit in over 50 years, Washington Post reported.
In the last year the world consumed about 70,000 metric tons more chocolate than was produced, Washington Post reported. The chocolate deficit is expected to keep growing, and the experts expect it to increase to two million metric tons by 2030.
The chocolate companies are accrediting the shortage of cocoa to a few different factors.
Over 70 percent of the world's cocoa is produced in West Africa - specifically in the Ivory Coast and Ghana - and the recent dry weather hitting the area is decreasing the rate of cocoa production in the area.
The International Cocoa Organization also believes West Africa is producing less cocoa because of frost pod, which is a fungal disease infecting the cocoa.
China is also being put to blame over the shortage of chocolate since record show the country is buying more chocolate every year, as Washington Post reports.
The chocolate deficit is also partially being caused by the growing popularity of dark chocolate, which takes more cocoa to produce. A regular chocolate bar consists of about 10 percent cocoa, while dark chocolate is made up of about 70 percent, Washington Post reported.
The chocolate industry may begin to change the way they produce chocolate to keep the world from completely running out.
"Efforts are under way to make chocolate cheap and abundant - in the process inadvertently rendering it as tasteless as today's store-bought tomatoes, yet another food, along with chicken and strawberries, that went from flavorful to forgettable on the road to plenitude," Bloomberg reported.
