You didn’t read it wrong. The world is running out of chocolate and by 2020 that sweet little indulgent slice of heaven, may even be extinct.

Last year the chocoholics around the world shovelled down more cocoa than we were able to produce, according to Mars Inc. and Barry Callebaut AG (the world’s largest chocolate maker).

Research has revealed the gap between how much cocoa the world wants to consume and how much it can produce will increase to one million metric tonnes by 2020.

It is expected that by the time we reach 2030, the shortfall will double to two million metric tonnes.

There just isn’t enough cocoa for the amount of chocolate we want to eat and the world is running out.

Bloomberg recently reported that the lack of chocolate available is a direct result of drought, disease, higher demand of more productive crops and the rising popularity in dark chocolate – seems those pesky health freaks could be to blame.

Chocolate lovers should brace themselves for shrinking bars in the future, padded with fillers like nuts or nougats to try and hide the plummeting cocoa supply.

Speaking to The Mirror, Angus Kennedy editor of industry magazine Kennedy’s Confection, said the new chocolate will be a far cry from the Dairy Milk bars we all know and love.

“It will be much sweeter as sugar is the cheapest ingredient and can be used to hide the fact that there is less cocoa powder,” he said.

“High quality chocolate snaps because of the level of cocoa butter. But in the future it won’t as more vegetable fat will be used – the product will be more bendy and sludgy in texture.”

So in our sweet chocolate hazed future we should expect products that are less chocolatey, smaller and more sludgy.

But if that isn’t enough disappointment for one day, you should also expect the price of chocolate to escalate too.

As cocoa supply falls but demand increases we can expect inflated prices for chocolate bars. Who knows what propostrous price the treasured Freddo will cost us in ten years.

I suggest you start stocking up, this is not a drill.

Picture: Evan-Amos