For some time, there has been a certain preoccupation in the industry regarding the fact that the demand for chocolate is increasing much faster than the supply of cocoa, especially in countries such as China where the standard of living is better, and also because diseases are destroying 30% of total world production. In response to this problem, the International Cocoa Quarantine Centre (ICQC) has recently opened several new installations in the United Kingdom.

In the HQ of the centre, founded in 1985 by the University of Reading (England), they have 400 varieties of cocoa in a giant greenhouse where they are kept in quarantine for two years. Later, the “safe” seeds are sent to producer countries, in Central America, South America, the Caribbean and West Africa.

Andrew J. Drummond, from ICQC, claims that “the quarantine of cocoa is highly recommended when materials used in cultivation, such as seeds and cuttings are transferred between different production regions. And he explains that doing this in the United Kingdom makes sense, “although we have to use a lot of energy to maintain cocoa plants in tropical conditions, thanks to the freshness of the British climate, they are isolated from the illness that they could suffer from in their countries of origin”.

Source: BBC Mundo