Ebola is threatening much of the world\u2019s chocolate supply.<\/p>\n
Ivory Coast, the world\u2019s largest producer of cacao, the raw ingredient in M&M\u2019s, Butterfingers and Snickers Bars, has shut down its borders with Liberia and Guinea, putting a major crimp on the workforce needed to pick the beans that end up in chocolate bars and other treats just as the harvest season begins. The West African nation of about 20 million \u2014 also known as C\u00f4te D\u2019Ivoire \u2014 has yet to experience a single case of Ebola, but the outbreak already could raise prices.<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s chocolate makers have taken notice.<\/p>\n
The World Cocoa Foundation is working now to collect large donations from Nestl\u00e9, Mars and many of its 113 other members for its Coca Industry Response to Ebola Initiative. The initiative hasn\u2019t been publicly unveiled, but the WCF plans to announce details Wednesday, during its annual meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, on how the money will fuel Red Cross and Caritas Internationalis work to help the infected and staunch Ebola\u2019s spread.<\/p>\n
Ivory Coast, which produces about 1.6 million metric tons of cacao beans per year \u2014 roughly 33 percent of the world\u2019s total, according to data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization \u2014 closed its borders in August to Guinea and Liberia. More than 8,000 have been diagnosed with Ebola, and nearly 4,000 have died in those two countries and Sierra Leone. Next to Ivory Coast is Ghana, the world\u2019s third-largest producer of cacao beans \u2014 879,348 metric tons per year \u2014 or 15 percent of the world\u2019s total.<\/p>\n
Source: Politico<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ebola is threatening much of the world\u2019s chocolate supply. Ivory Coast, the world\u2019s largest producer of cacao, the raw ingredient in M&M\u2019s, Butterfingers and Snickers Bars, has shut down its borders with Liberia and Guinea, putting a major crimp on the workforce needed to pick the beans that end up in chocolate bars and other … Continue reading “Ebola threatens chocolate industry”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2961,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,123],"tags":[10275,9128,3941,2366,1410,2434],"class_list":["post-16395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-world","tag-chocolate","tag-ebola","tag-guinea","tag-ivory-coast","tag-liberia","tag-west-africa"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16396,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16395\/revisions\/16396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}