Chocolatiers Need More Cocoa, and They Want Millennials to Help
- Indonesia’s harvest to jump 15% next year, double through 2024
- Cocoa farming needs to offer a good future, says Mars official
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The maker of chocolate M&M’s and Snickers sees a growing risk on the horizon: sliding cocoa supply from one of the world’s top growers.
The answer? Comics and WiFi. Mars Inc., maker of candy famous to consumers across the world, is among firms trying to lure millennials into cocoa farming in Indonesia, where aging planters, decaying trees, pests and diseases have depressed output so much that the nation has become a net importer. The hope is that the younger set, attracted by free Internet, will get hooked on cocoa at themed cafes and be persuaded to return to the farms.