Why Chocolate Companies Are Investing $1 Billion In Farmers

Cocoa crops are dwindling. But that doesn’t mean you should fill your survival bunker with Hershey’s Kisses. (Well, not yet anyway.) In response to the fall in cocoa bean crops, chocolate companies are coming to the rescue of chocolate lovers everywhere by investing $1 billion to improve crop yields. A number of factors play into shrinking cocoa bean production, from global warming to agricultural practices and even Ebola, according to Grubstreet. That fall in productivity has been met with an increased demand for the crop, as global demand for chocolate continues to grow. In response to these issues, cocoa prices have increased 40%, which has affected consumers with a slight rise in chocolate prices, as The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. But, if chocolate companies get their way, we won't all be rationing chocolate anytime soon. That’s where the $1 billion investment comes in. Companies like Mondelez, which makes chocolate products like Cadbury bars and Oreos, are spending that money to increase crop yields. Their techniques include training courses for farmers and grafting new plants to older stumps, decreasing the amount of time it would make for a cocoa plant to produce pods. While we're not panicking just yet, we might still stock up on a couple of our fave candy bars. We can't even begin to imagine a world without chocolate.