Cocoa bean merchants and chocolate makers are preparing the first industrywide effort to help prevent the deadly Ebola virus from affecting cocoa farmers in West Africa, an official from Mars Chocolate North America, said on Tuesday.
In a sign of the deepening concerns that the epidemic could disrupt supplies of beans from the world's top growing region, the World Cocoa Foundation will outline on Wednesday steps the industry will take to prepare for Ebola prevention at a conference in Copenhagen, a spokesman for Mars, the maker of M&M's and Snickers, said.
He was speaking at the Reuters Global Climate Change Summit and declined to give details of what the measures are.
So far, the disease has killed nearly 4,500 people in West Africa with nearly 9,000 infected, the World Health Organization estimates.
It has not, however, spread to the world's top two cocoa producers, Ivory Coast and Ghana, the West African countries where roughly 60 percent of the world's beans are produced. Fears that it could do, and potentially limit supplies, lifted bean prices to a 3-1/2-year high in late September.
Also at the summit, Mars outlined worries about the long-term impact of changing weather patterns from climate change on production and supplies of its key raw materials.
The company, which is best known for its chocolates and also makes products including consumer foods and pet products, is already dealing with other disruptions in its raw material supplies from extreme events, such as wild fires.
"We're seeing early indications of climate change, but it's really what's coming 10, 20 years from now that's worrying," Kevin Rabinovitch, global sustainability director at Mars, said.
Climate change can affect cocoa beans due to changes in hours of sun, rainfall, soil conditions and temperature. It could also alter the development of cocoa pests and pathogens and their resistance.
Because of the shared threat of climate change, the company said it is working with other companies in the World Cocoa Foundation to reduce their impact on climate change and mitigate any effects on cocoa supply.
In 2010, the company partnered with U.S. Department of Agriculture and IBM and other groups to sequence the cacao genome and make it publicly available to improve the process of growing. The project aims to ensure a more sustainable and environment-friendly supply of cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate.
"That's one of the decisions you have to work on 10 years before you need it," Rabinovitch said.
Mars said it is also extending its sustainability efforts to other crops, including peanuts and palm oil.
Rabinovitch said that Mars already hit its goal of 100 percent certified palm oil by 2015, and aims to be able to trace all its palm oil supplies down to the mill by end of this year.
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