"Plant experts warn that the production of chocolate could be threatened in the future by plant diseases.
Twenty per cent of cacao beans, used to make chocolate, are lost to plant diseases every year but Randy Ploetz, a plant pathology professor at the University of Florida, has warned that this percentage could rise if major diseases were to spread.
"Plant diseases are the most important constraints to cacao production and the continued viability of the world's confectionary trades," Professor Ploetz revealed.
Two of the three most damaging cacao plant diseases, frosty pod and witches' broom, are currently found only in tropical America but could threaten the crops if they were to spread to Africa.
"Frosty pod and witches' broom would devastate cacao production in West Africa, where almost 70 percent of all production occurs," said Professor Ploetz.
"In this region, either disease could reduce yields by an additional one million more metric tonnes per year," he warned.
Four million metric tonnes of cacao beans are produced each year, worth over US$4 billion."
http://www.fdin.co.uk/news/index.php
Oh my God, it's the doomsday scenario!
