Cacao plants used to make chocolate are struggling to grow as global temperatures rise (Picture: Getty)

Experts fear the world could totally run out of chocolate in the next thirty years because cacao plants are struggling to grow in warmer climates.

The cacao tree thrives in humid, rainforest-like conditions, relying on heavy rainfall close to the equator.

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But the threat of rising temperatures over the next three decades means a loss in moisture in the ground which scientists say will not be made up for by rain.

A temperature rise of just 2.1C over the next 30 years caused by global warming could spell an end for the chocolate industry worldwide, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.




Farmers in countries such as Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana – which produce more than half of the world’s chocolate – now face a decision over whether to move cacao production areas thousands of feet uphill into mountainous terrain which is carefully preserved for wildlife.

But a move of that scale threatens to destroy their already dying ecosystems.

Cacao trees thrive in humid and wet conditions (Picture: Getty)

Cocoa beans, which are the seed of cacao plants, are used in chocolate making (Picture: Getty)

Last year experts predicted that the world was heading for a ‘chocolate deficit’ as shoppers in developing countries snapped up more of the sweet treat.

The typical Western consumer eats an average of 286 chocolate bars a year – more if they are from Belgium, the research titled Destruction by Chocolate found.

For 286 bars, producers need to plant 10 cacao trees to make the cocoa and the butter – the key ingredients in the production of chocolate.

Since the 1990s, more than a billion people from China, Indonesia, India, Brazil and the former Soviet Union have entered the market for cocoa.

Despite the increased demand, supply has not kept up and stockpiles of cocoa are said to be falling.

Cacao producers now face tough decisions over how to farm the plants in the future (Picture: Getty)

Doug Hawkins, from London-based research firm Hardman Agribusiness, said production of cocoa is under strain as farming methods have not changed for hundreds of years.

‘Unlike other tree crops that have benefited from the development of modern, high yielding cultivars and crop management techniques to realise their genetic potential, more than 90 per cent of the global cocoa crop is produced by smallholders on subsistence farms with unimproved planting material,’ he told MailOnline.

‘All the indicators are that we could be looking at a chocolate deficit of 100,000 tonnes a year in the next few years.’

Some reports suggest cocoa growers in the world’s top producer country, Ivory Coast, have resorted to illegally farming protected forests to meet demand, he said.

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