In 2030, global chocolate production will experience serious difficulties associated with an acute shortage of raw materials, and by 2050 cocoa raw materials supply may cease altogether.

This forecast was made by experts of the portal Business Insider (USA). The fact is that 70% of raw materials come from West Africa, a region where global warming is setting an increasingly drier climate that negatively affects the development of chocolate trees.

In addition, squalls and floods caused by climate change, tree diseases also cause considerable damage to cocoa plantations. According to the International Cocoa Organization, pests and diseases destroy almost 40% of the global crop of the product.

A few words should be said about the direct production of chocolate.

As already noted, the main raw material is grated cocoa and cocoa butter, and various additives are used in the form of powdered sugar, milk, emulsifiers, flavorings, etc.

Chocolate production consists of several stages: primary processing of cocoa beans, obtaining cocoa products (grated cocoa or cocoa butter), making chocolate mass, getting fillings (if chocolate is made with fillings), forming chocolate and packing it.

Cocoa beans - the main element of chocolate is extracted from the fruits of cocoa trees. Each tree contains about 30 fruits, containing from 30 to 40 cocoa beans cut into the white flesh. Beans are removed from the fruit, fermented and dried.

Subsequently, they are cleaned and sorted by size. After they undergo heat treatment, they are cooled, crushed to the state of cereals with the separation of the shell and embryo.

The yield of raw materials suitable for the preparation of chocolate is in the range from 81 to 83% of the initial raw weight.