MARS, Inc: We Are Running Out of Chocolate 323
schwit1 writes There's no easy way to say this: You're eating too much chocolate, all of you. And it's getting so out of hand that the world could be headed towards a potentially disastrous (if you love chocolate) scenario if it doesn't stop. ... Chocolate deficits, whereby farmers produce less cocoa than the world eats, are becoming the norm. Already, we are in the midst of what could be the longest streak of consecutive chocolate deficits in more than 50 years. It also looks like deficits aren't just carrying over from year-to-year—the industry expects them to grow. Last year, the world ate roughly 70,000 metric tons more cocoa than it produced. By 2020, the two chocolate-makers warn that that number could swell to 1 million metric tons, a more than 14-fold increase; by 2030, they think the deficit could reach 2 million metric tons.
Good news! (Score:5, Funny)
Chocolate rations have been increased to 20 grams!
Re:Good news! (Score:4, Funny)
I could have sworn it was being reduced to 20 grams...
Re:Good news! (Score:5, Funny)
I could have sworn it was being reduced to 20 grams...
Why do they even need chocolate on Mars? The only thing there so far is robots. I understand that we should pre-position supplies before sending colonists, but chocolate is not exactly a mission priority.
Re: (Score:2)
I could have sworn it was being reduced to 20 grams...
Why do they even need chocolate on Mars? The only thing there so far is robots. I understand that we should pre-position supplies before sending colonists, but chocolate is not exactly a mission priority.
They do need it real bad there on Mars. Without it, how would hawt princesses like Thuvia [ayay.co.uk] or Deja Thoris maintain their proper feminine figures?
Re: (Score:2)
Just be glad we haven't found the Moties [wikipedia.org] yet.
Re:Good news! (Score:4, Insightful)
MARS NEEDS CHOCOLATE!!!!!!
And once they have that, it will also solve that pesky "Mars Needs Women" problem!
Re: (Score:2)
Fail...
Re: (Score:2)
How so? (if you are referring to my post as a fail). I got the 1984 reference loud and clear.
Re: (Score:3)
Same low price! Handy snack size!
Re: (Score:2)
Stop giving them ideas.
Also, if the snack size becomes the regular size, I can't wait to see the mini version made for Halloween.
The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:5, Interesting)
Cocoa is very labor intensive way more than you can reasonably expect and today these remote communities have roads to them. Farmers can now grow bananas, pineapples, passion fruit etc for a lot less labor and have it at port in just a few days. For this reason many cocoa farmers are cutting down their trees and replacing them with crops that are less labor intensive. Additionally the youth are looking to jobs in oil (such as in Trinidad) or in the cities.
What foods are similar to cocoa in terms of labor? Truffles, saffron, vanilla, good cheeses etc. all of which are very expensive comparatively. Nobody faults these for not being $3/lb or less
What's the solution? To pay the farmers more. Right now, Cocoa sells for approx $2800/ton and in my opinion it should be closer to $10,000 - $20,000 / ton. This means that a chocolate bar would sell for $6-10 depending on packaging. (We currently sell chocolate we make from cocoa from Chuao Venezuela where we pay $5.50/lb for the cocoa where the London market was around $1.40/lb so we paid the farmers four times the market rate.)
Don't be wooed by so called "fair trade" certification. When I see that, I know the farmers just got screwed. Why? With Fair trade the farmers get a premium of $150-$200/ton -- a price increase of 5%. On the other hand, the FT organization charges the farmers between $2500 - $10000/year for the certification and in personal experience I've only seen it at $10,000 / year. At the same time they charge $0.10/lb ($220/ton) to whoever imports it for it to maintain its FT certification and another $0.10/lb for thr use of the logos and trademarks. So FT gets $440/ton and the farmers get $200. Not so fair. Plus don't forget the farmers certification and of course the companies need to be certified too. Oh yea. The inspectors are $750/day plus travel.
So what to do? Buy good chocolate. A bar should be anywhere from $5-$15. You can't make really good chocolate without using great cocoa. You can't get great cocoa without paying a significant premium to the farmers -- often 2-4 times the NY or London terminal price. So you know they are paid well. You simply can't have a $1-2 chocolate bar after if has been run though the supply chain (stores, distributors, the factory, various cocoa brokers, etc.) and know the farmers were paid well no matter the certification.
Re:The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:5, Insightful)
I own a small high end chocolate company, and I think chocolate should be more expensive.
Didn't see THAT one coming a mile away. Nope. Nosiree...
Re:The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe you were just trying for a Funny, but that just makes it even more depressing that someone modded you Insightful.
Because GP, as a chocolate maker, was saying that _cocoa_ should be more expensive. Does that mean the average price of chocolate would rise? Yes. Does that mean the GP's wholesale and retail price would rise? Maybe, maybe not, because they're already paying the farmers well above the typical rates.
Regardless; when one of the "middlemen" between you and the farmers, tells you that the farmers are getting stiffed by the global system that supposedly exists to protect those farmers, you should pay more attention.
Re:The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:5, Insightful)
Everyone who voted insightful REALLY needs to go to one of those companies and try good chocolate. .... less then average.
I don't each much chocolate so I only but the HQ stuff now. Milka, Mars or even Ritter - they suck compared to a good, higher coca content chocolate.
I get mine from a shop selling coffee because just a chocolate, average coffee tastes
You only live once. Stop stuffing low quality shit into your mouth!
Re: (Score:3)
Re:The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:5, Funny)
What does that have to do with anything? We're talking about CHOCOLATE.
(Somebody was bound to post that, it might as well be me...)
/(adjusts monocle)
Re:The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:5, Insightful)
I and a number of other small chocolate makers have looked at what cocoa _should_ cost. Cocoa beans IMHO should cost at least double if not three to four times what they currently do.
Now with a Hershey's Bar, a good portion of the bar is sugar and milk. Because of this, there is very little "cocoa" (the real part of chocolate in chocolate) in a Hershey's chocolate bar. This was the big innovation that Milton Hershey made. Chocolate was too expensive and was the domain of the rich and so he in some ways invented the technique of watering it down with immense quantities of sugar and milk. If I remember right, a Hershey's bar is only 15% cocoa (not counting the cocoa butter which is added to reduce the viscosity of the added milk and sugar. I don't know what Hershey's pays for these ingredients but I can get sugar for $0.50-$0.60/lb offsets the price significantly for a bar like Hershey's since there is so much of it. But I'd bet to get the prices right you'd probably be needing to have a Hershey's bar cost at least 2-3 times what they currently do. I'd have to really dig into the numbers closely to really make a more accurate stab at it.
Along the line of your question though, Hershey's buys some of the worst quality cocoa (of which there is a lot of) and pays prices that are close to rock bottom. So they are paying around $1.30/lb right now. There is a 20-25% loss after you remove the shell and moisture evaporation during roasting. I've tasted the grade of cocoa that they buy and it is spitting bad (ie, you'll spit it out almost immediately. Better qualities of cocoa taste significantly better. So I hope this helps a bit.
Re:The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:5, Informative)
Probably the best widely available chocolate would be Guittard. Guittard is run by Gary Guittard and it was started by his great grandfather in San Francisco during the gold rush. I'm personally good friends with Gary and I know where they buy their beans (not all of them but enough so that I have a good sense as to what is paid and we buy from some of the same farmers.) Guittard buys some very premium cocoas (and some lower grade too.) For their premium cocoas, they pay premium prices. Gary (along with myself) are founding members of Direct Cacao an organization that was set up to promote the direct trade of cocoa with the farmers to help ensure that farmers get paid enough to keep cocoa a viable crop and to help keep quality up.
Lindt actually owns Ghiraldelli which is funny. When you buy San Francisco Chocolate, you are actually buying swiss. I'm familiar where they get some of their beans and their beans generally aren't particularly good quality. Their Madagascar chocolate is made with some of the lowest quality cocoas from Madagascar for example -- they couldn't buy their cocoa from the better growers for example Akkeson's plantation where we, Valrhona, and many of the europoean manufacturers buy their cocoa from.
Chocolate brands to look out for would be IMHO: Michel Cluizel, Pralus, Amedei, Domori, Valrhona (though they don't us as good cocoa as they used to). In the US, I'd look at companies such as Guittard (the big one) and smaller ones such as Amano, Theo, Patric, Rogue, Dandelion, Askinosie, Taza, Ritual, Dick Taylor, Fresco, Patomic, etc. There is a new movement in the US for craft chocolate making much in the same way the beer industry went a few years ago. These companies (and others) are at the forefront and many of their owners truly care about what they are doing and the farmers they work with. Among many of these companies is the desire to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. I've been immensely proud to hear how the owners all want to pay the farmers more. Gary Guittard in one of our Direct Cacao meetings got up and specifically said: "We all need to pay even more to the farmers." I was so proud to be part of a movement where this was being said. The biggest hurdle is to educate the public so that chocolate isn't seen as just another commodity so that the public is willing to pay enough that we can pass that along to the farmers as we would like.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
How much do you think a standard Hershey Bar (plain, 43g) should cost in $USD? Genuinely curious.
I'm no chocolate snob, but you couldn't pay me to eat that stuff. Who ever thought it would be a good idea to add sour milk to perfectly adequate chocolate? It tastes like they've mixed it with baby vomit. As an emergency measure, all cocoa intended for Hershey's production should be seized and used to establish a National Cocoa Reserve. Only manufacturers with a track record of selling an edible product (like Ghirardelli) would then be allowed to draw on it. Sound reasonable?
Re: (Score:3)
Maybe he just has a very, very good memory.
Re: (Score:3)
Go ahead. Price your everyday 3 Musketeers at $5. Or your high end froufrou gourmet fair trade locally produced specialty market candy bar at $15+.
How long before bankruptcy?
Re: (Score:2)
Two things cross my mind;
One, it's amazing the things some people would rather have than money. People pay through the nose for tiny portions of animal products most people would consider dog food. I can totally see enough people buying chocolate at $0.40/gram or more (resulting in $15+ bars) regardless of ACTUAL quality. It's all branding.
Two, if there really does end up being a global cocoa shortage, you might not have much of a choice.
=Smidge=
Re: (Score:2)
I can totally see most people not having the jack to pay for $15 candy bars. They'll use something else for their sweet tooth. The high end producers might survive if their current market is small enough and well enough heeled. The rest go bye-bye.
Re: (Score:2)
Money is pretty useless. You can't eat it or shelter yourself from rain with it. I'd rather have almost anything than money. The relevant question is, between two things (including potential future things) I can have rather than money, which do I prefer?
Re:The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:5, Informative)
I agree. Chocolate was once the domain of the rich and while Milton Hershey commoditized it by adding immense amounts of sugar and milk, I feel convinced it will some day become a specialty product once again that is more of a rare treat rather than the everyday snack.
Here is how it works in terms of labor:
The cocoa trees are highly disease susceptible so there is a lot more work that goes into keeping your cocoa plantation in good shape than say apples or oranges. There is a production of about 1MT / acre of cocoa per year so the land doesn't produce very much per acre as you might expect. Not all the cocoa comes into ripeness at the same time (unlike apples, oranges, etc.) so the farmer has to walk the plantation every few days harvesting each cocoa pod by hand one at a time as each pod becomes ripe. Each cocoa pod equates to about one chocolate bar and must be hand cut from the tree (not picked). The pods are then taken to a central area where they are split by hand and the beans removed and the central stalk taken out again all by hand. The beans are then put into wooden fermentation boxes (3 foot square) where they are fermented typically 5-7 days depending on variety. Each day the beans must be taken out of the boxes, clumps broken up and\ turned over, and then put back in so that they ferment rather than rot. Finally, they must be dried which takes another 5-7 days where they are put out in the sun in the morning and brought back in when it looks like it might rain or in the evening. Some farmers turn the beans every hour. The final price? $1.30/lb Let's look at pecans. The trees are a lot easier to grow, very disease resistant (comparatively) and they are harvested by a vehicle driving up to the tree, grabbing it and shaking it until all the pecans fall out and then they go to the next tree. The price? $4.50/lb if I buy it 1,000/lbs at a time.
Given the labor economics, the amount of cocoa will reduce until the price of the chocolate goes up enough to support higher prices for the farmers. This will happen whether we like it or not. This will also continue to happen as the 3rd world countries industrialize and less labor intensive forms of jobs are available such as working oil fields, mines, and other blue collar and white collar jobs in the various cities.
Re: (Score:3)
Curious - was recalling attempts to redefine "Chocolate", to deal with the falling availability, and increase in price.
If this goes forward, wont we just see candy-bars with effectively little-to-no cocoa content, being sold as Chocolate?
Side-note: I've had chocolate bars in the US (random stuff bought at e.g. 7-11 and Walmart - I suspect the US already messed up the definition of "Chocolate" long time ago.
Disclaimer: I live in Brussels, and pay several times the prices I saw in the US, for my chocolate whe
Re:The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:5, Informative)
Keep in mind that a 3 Musketeers bar is mostly sugar. There isn't much chocolate in it at all. There is just a thin shell of chocolate on the outside (predominately). That chocolate is very sweet. I'd bet it contains no more than 20-30% cocoa. (Our milk chocolate is 35% cocoa which is higher than most.) Most of the rest is sugar. (There is some cocoa butter which sells now for about $4.70/lb as the market is up for cocoa butter right now -- conversely to powder which is down as they move inversely to each other for reasons I've never quite understood.)
This is one thing we have a hard time communicating to chefs. They don't always understand that very good quality chocolate is a lot more affordable than they think. The price per pound is higher -- sometimes a lot higher. At the same time, there often is very little chocolate in the chocolate dessert once you've added flour, eggs, milk, cream, sugar, etc. So they can improve the quality of their dessert --- sometimes significantly -- without as much added price as you'd normally think since the chocolate is diluted by so many other ingredients.
Part of the problem is that there is a mindset that cocoa and chocolate are commodities in the same way that flour and sugar are rather than heavily labor intensive products that should be compared more closely to truffles, vanilla, fine cheeses, etc.all of which are typically carefully handcrafted products in much the same way that cocoa is.
About the locally produced bar -- As I said, you can't make good quality chocolate without good quality cocoa. You can't get good quality cocoa without paying the farmers significantly more. Hence you can not have a "cheap" high quality chocolate where the farmers were paid well. This doesn't always mean that an expensive bar is made with chocolate where the farmers were paid fairly for their cocoa. We all can think of products that were way overpriced for crap. So in general you can have overly priced bad quality chocolate but you can't have under priced good quality chocolate simply because good quality beans are expensive. Pay attention to the quality --- not the price. The price though will follow the quality.
Re: (Score:2)
Reading your comments reminds me of why I come to slashdot in the first place, so firstly - thank you
Secondly; I'm a huge fan of chocolate - I mean, who isn't - and I want to know which brand of chocolate I ought to be buying. Living in NZ means I'm probably not going to be a customer of yours, so what do you suggest? Cadbury's? Whittakers? Green & Black's? Someone else that I've not heard of?
Re:The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:5, Funny)
There's only four ingredients in a 3 Musketeers bar:
- Chocolate
- Athos
- Porthos
- Aramis
Re:The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:4, Insightful)
Price of any stock will go up when the demand is higher than the supply. And if supplier business is truly not currently economically viable, less fields will be used for cocoa, supply will go down, and price will go up again. No need to talk about what one ethically "should" pay for it.
Re: (Score:2)
In fact, very few people (globally) have the privilege of eating actual vanilla!
Re:The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:4, Insightful)
So what to do? Buy good chocolate. A bar should be anywhere from $5-$15. You can't make really good chocolate without using great cocoa. You can't get great cocoa without paying a significant premium to the farmers -- often 2-4 times the NY or London terminal price. So you know they are paid well. You simply can't have a $1-2 chocolate bar after if has been run though the supply chain (stores, distributors, the factory, various cocoa brokers, etc.) and know the farmers were paid well no matter the certification.
Correct. The problem is not that there is a coach shortage but that there is a shortage of cheap cocoa. High end producers who want to make good chocolate pay a premium and get what they need. Mars, which doesn't really produce chocolate but a brown substance to cover filings, can't.
Re:The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:5, Informative)
There isn't much monopoly that I've ever seen. There are some huge chocolate traders and companies out there. Many have the resources to create hedges so that the market doesn't affect them in the same way it does smaller producers. However, the chocolate business is pretty competitive. There are many brokers and in country cocoa traders. If one cocoa trader isn't paying the farmers as much as another, the farmers will switch. The farmers are typically poor so they don't feel as tied to loyalty as they might otherwise and they follow the price paid. The bigger problem is simply that Hershey's (as an example) has a low-end chocolate bar that they have to run all the ingredients and final products through the supply chain all to have a bar that is $1.00 (or so --- I don't keep track of their price as I don't eat the stuff) by the time it reaches the final customer. This means that they can only offer a price so high to make the numbers work.
So it is about educating the customer so that they will pay more. We (as a company) try to help educate the farmers and help them increase the quality of their cocoa. (Most of the world's cocoa is amazingly poor quality). If the farmers increase the quality of their cocoa, they can charge more. Hopefully, we will get to buy it when they do improve the quality. With good quality cocoa, the farmers can always charge less if they choose or if they have to. With poor quality cocoa, they can never charge more. Quality provides options for the farmers and in my experience really helps improve the self image of the farmers which is an amazing thing to see.
Re:The Fix: Buy good Chocolate! (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Panic! (Score:5, Funny)
Forget Ebola, forget IS, forget running out of IPv4 addresses, finally a real reason to panic.
So go ahead, make the most of it!
Re: (Score:2)
But they have not yet told us everything...
We are also out of coffee... [youtube.com]
Re:Panic! (Score:4, Funny)
Now this is serious. Yeah, chocolate is important but at least it isn't a life sustaining drug. Run out of coffee and it will make World War Z look like a Girl Scout Camporee.
I'm stockpiling and hiding in my bunker. Seeeee yoooouuuuu alllll aa biitttt llllaaaatttererrr.
Re:Panic! It's worse than you think (Score:3)
Don't forget Ebola. The Ivory Coast grows a huge amount of the world's cocoa. It is right next door to Liberia. Most of the labor to harvest the cocoa crop is migrant labor from Liberia. Ivory Coast has closed its border with Liberia in response to the Ebola. So, the cocoa crop there is not going to be harvested unless the growers figure out another source of cheap labor. Stock up on chocolate now.
That's what she said! (Score:5, Funny)
"There's no easy way to say this: You're eating too much chocolate, all of you."
My dentist has been telling me this for years. So has my wife. Do you think they're seeing each other?
Re:That's what she said! (Score:5, Funny)
I bet the dentist is drilling your wife.
This is what the Free Market is for (Score:5, Informative)
Chocolate prices rise, people have larger incentive to grow cacao. I'm failing to see what the issue here is.
Re:This is what the Free Market is for (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm guessing that the problem here is that there can either be executive salaries for chocolate (and coffee) companies in the US, or there can be adequate revenue for sustainable chocolate (and coffee) agriculture outside the US.
Of course we know which is more important.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:This is what the Free Market is for (Score:4, Insightful)
More like people have larger incentives to adulterate chocolate. This is how free market usually works.
Like using soja butter instead of cocoa butter (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
So only the rich will get to eat chocolate and drink coffee ?
Sure. That will solve the problem, right ?
Personally, I was kind of hoping at least solving the child slavery problem of cocoa production:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... [wikipedia.org]
This could be a solution, but sounds like it will take a lot of time, even if we don't run out of chocolate:
"In 2012, Ferrero and Mars promised that they will end cocoa slavery by 2020"
Re: (Score:2)
Except that cocoa doesn't grow anywhere. And the places that it does grow have just been given another kick in the pants with Ebola (as it they needed it). Now, there are a couple of ways to deal with the problem. Quit eating chocolate is one way, but that's crazy talk. Figure out how to grow the trees in other, more desirable places. That's likely to require Evil GMO type technology and I'm rather sure that movements are afoot to do exactly that. We could, perhaps, use a bit of enlightened self inter
Re: (Score:2)
"We could, perhaps, use a bit of enlightened self interest and work on the Ebola epidemic, work on the virus that is decimating the crop, work on creating an infrastructure in those countries so they can move themselves out the shithole that everyone has managed to create over there."
The U.S. is already doing this as well as the Western nations. Even China has anted up a pittance. You know it is serious when China decides to fund something with no immediate payback.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:This is what the Free Market is for (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
That's not what global warming does. Global warming heats the oceans first, screwing up weather patterns all over the world. Global warming means more hurricanes, heat waves, tornadoes, and ruined crops.
Cocoa futures (Score:5, Interesting)
It's probably worth mentioning here that Mars, Inc. is one of the big players in the Cocoa futures market. This is not investment advice, but if you invest in cocoa futures based on this article, you would be making a bet based on a story from someone who hopes to make money off of you.
Re:Cocoa futures (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
They are a big player, because they need a lot of chocolate, and futures help to manage their acquisition prices. Of course, they could try to play with the market, but they'll risk alienating their chocolate eating customers, so it's not clear that this would be in their advantage.
Well, of course. They are the sort of player the futures markets were invented for (they KNOW they will need cocoa in the future, they KNOW more or less how much, why not hedge the price if the opportunity presents itself?). It's just my cynical side wakes up whenever I hear a big futures player start jawboning the market.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
That was my thinking. Maybe we have giant silos of cacao, and those are dwindling, although I lack the imagination to think this is literally true. The whole premise looks like a reason to raise prices and profits.
If the world is eating more chocolate, it means the world is getting richer. Not many in China would be eating chocolate regularly 20 years ago, Same could be said of other areas.
Regardless, the math doesn't add up, particularly the future estimations of us consuming a million tons more than w
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Cocoa futures (Score:5, Interesting)
By dipping into the cocoa reserves, built up from years when it was the opposite.
The real question is this:
by 2030, they think the deficit could reach 2 million metric tons.
Just how deep are the cocoa reserves?
How are we covering the shortfall/defecit? (Score:3)
So, kind of an obvious question. How are we covering the deficit? If we are eating more than is being produced, how is that possible? Are we tapping into some big strategic cocoa reserve that is slowly dwindling?
I did quickly RTFA, but neither mentioned anything about this.
Re: How are we covering the shortfall/defecit? (Score:5, Funny)
Simple, the Federal Reserve just prints more chocolate.
Cocoatative Easing they call it.
Re: (Score:2)
milk, milk, lemonade (Score:2)
Recycling?
Re: (Score:2)
According to this EU Report [google.com] from 1997, there was at that point in time a 1,250,000 tonne reserve of cocoa (50% of production), and the estimated consumption deficit for 1996-7 was 225,000 tonnes.
It looks to me like cocoa deficits are not new, and that the industry already uses large reserves to ensure continued supply until such time as higher prices increase production. Unless they are suggesting some other change, such as climate, will prevent new supply I can't see a long-term issue other than price fluc
Re: (Score:2)
easy
$ echo 1 >/proc/sys/vm/overcommit_chocolate
Re: (Score:2)
If I had to guess, I would bet that sugar or corn syrup is being used as a chocolate extender.
Deficit eating (Score:2)
I can imagine demand rising a lot, but unless there are huge cocoa reserves
somewhere (which I doubt in the case of a perishable) in the order of multiple
yearly harvests (global production seems to be somewhere around four million
tonnes), I can't see how this demand is going to be met with actual chocolate.
Re:Deficit eating (Score:5, Interesting)
The deficit they're talking about is around 1% to 2% of the annual production. Assuming that you sell the reserves prior to selling the new crops, and put the unsold new crops in reserve, the reserves could last for decades with none of the stock being over a year old.
Of course that is a highly simplified view, but it does allow for multi-year deficits without actually running out of cocoa. Of course a low reserve also means that there could be serious problems if the yields are particularly bad one year. (But at least it's just cocoa. A staple crop would be an entirely different issue.)
Re: (Score:2)
The deficit they're talking about is around 1% to 2% of the annual production.
Right now, yes. The deficit they are talking about is 25%-50% of the annual production.
I can't see this working for more than a handful of years even under the assumption of large
stockpiles - "rolling reserves" attenuate the problem of age, but not the one of consumption.
Trader Joe's Could Help (Score:5, Funny)
They could alleviate some of this problem by contacting the people who run Trader Joe's. They have this one dark chocolate bar (can't recall the name of it) that is so nasty and bitter, that it is inedible completely (unless you dip it in honey, then it is barely tolerable). It is worse than baking chocolate and is actually sold as if it is intended to be eaten like a normal bar of chocolate. If they just full stop quit producing that travesty, perhaps that could free up chocolate resources for other uses for perhaps another year or so.
Re: (Score:2)
I love that one! Wife and I have a few squares after dinner each night. Delicious.
Re: (Score:2)
This is the one to avoid. [whatsgooda...erjoes.com]
Why isn't then the price exploding ? (Score:2)
Correction not 2000$ but 2800$ per tonnes (Score:4, Informative)
Grow cocoa instead of cocaine (Score:2)
How much of a stockpile is there? (Score:2)
Editors schmeditors (Score:2)
Why do you think Mars is an acronym?
Re: (Score:2)
Mars isn't a acronym, it's a bar.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That's no space station, it's a planet! ...Mars!
could we please stop linearly extrapolating? (Score:2)
I have a strong suspicion that the many resource depletion posts we see on here employ faulty forecasting techniques.
In this case, the article never mentions anything about how prices adjust to:
-demand
-supply constraints
-externalities
It's through prices that all those things communicate and avoid dire situations.
Open season for Switzerland (Score:3)
I bet the US have "strategic military reserves" or something stacked up somewhere. As is usual in such cases, however, a conflict will break out in Europe... The pleasing thing is that the Swiss don't get to play neutral this time!
dont see how (Score:2)
since you make your candy bars 10% smaller every year (and charge the same price if not more)
Blame it on the legalized marijuana (Score:2)
Chocolate alternative (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I shudder to think what that is made from.
Time to modify it to grow elsewhere (Score:2)
However, it is pricy enough that it could be grown in greenhouses further north.
Peak chocolate (Score:3)
My Wife's response: (Score:3)
My Wife's response:
"OK that's it, I'm cutting you and the kid off. More for me!!!"
Min
Chocolate? Mars? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
So ... what you're saying is that women have no business on Slashdot.
Fuck you.
Re: (Score:2)
Now, if there was a serious shortage of beer or pizza, I could see that that would be worth discussing.
Chocolate is mostly an obsession of women, and children of tricks or treats age. I don't know why that is, but it never bothered me enough to investigate.
No wonder AC's are so weird. Sorry guys. Your only hope is that you will probably be the last survivors of the upcoming Chocolate Wars. And a dismal, faint hope it will be.
Re: (Score:2)
As every INTELLIGENT person knows, diamonds are only semi-precious stones
Have you ever tried to sell a diamond? [theatlantic.com] (from 1982, but still relevant today), and The diamond myth, [theatlantic.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
It's been this way for a very long time. It's easy to tell good ice cream from crap just by checking fat content. Higher end ice creams have much higher fat and calories. They also cost more because cream is a lot more expensive than air.