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WEEKLY NEWS 2: Chocolate Threatened By Plant Diseases

Cacao beans are the main product used in chocolate, but a rise in plant diseases could threaten these beans.

The three most damaging diseases are black pod, frosty pod, and witches’ broom. Tropical America is most affected by frosty pod and witches’ broom, while black pod has the most destruction worldwide.

Black pod attacks the seedlings and forms cankers on the base of the cacao tree.

If a white or tan powder is visible on the surface of the pod, the plant is suffering from frosty pod. This disease causes the pods to develop a colorful pattern of greens and yellows, distorting the pod and rotting the interior, which in turn, destroys the beans.

Witches’ broom causes the tree to send up shoots from flower clusters and branch tips, making them unstable and reducing the tree’s ability to produce pods filled with beans.

The global market of chocolate is worth $75 billion annually. Today, 4 million metric tons of beans worth more than $4 billion are produced each year.

At the joint meeting of the American Phytopathological Society, Canadian Phytopathological Society and the Mycological Society of America, new insights and current research on cacao diseases will be addressed. The “Cacao Diseases: Important Threats to Chocolate Production Worldwide” symposium will also cover the resistant to and management of cacao plant diseases. This joint meeting will be held July 29 through August 2 in Quebec, Canada.

--Written by Nicole Buckholz

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