Is Ebola Effecting Chocolate Supply?

This Ebola outbreak is expected to have long-lasting, international implications, including its effect on the supply and prices of one of the world's favorite: Chocolate.

West Africa produces about three-quarters of the world's chocolate. Sixty percent of that chocolate comes from Ivory Coast and Ghana. The outbreak of Ebola being so close to these countries have led to concerns that if the disease were to spread into these countries, it could cause a major disruption in cocoa productions and spike the prices of chocolate.

The demand for chocolate has risen over the years, before the Ebola outbreak. The uncertainty about cocoa supplies is causing jitters among chocolate-related industries around the world, and concerns about chocolate prices.

"If prices rise at a greater rate, chocolate manufacturers will pass the increase onto consumers," Andrew Rolle of Juremont, a major Australian importer of chocolate ingredients, told the Sydney Morning Herald. "It's a fragile market there at the best of times. There will be labor issues with the cocoa farmers in the fields, political issues, transport issues with accessing stock through ports."

Most major confectioners in the U.S. are reluctant to talk about how a potential cocoa shortage might directly affect them, however Hershey did offer some perspective, saying the company is in close contact with its cocoa suppliers in West Africa over the Ebola outbreak and its potential impact on cocoa supplies.

"Our suppliers have assured us they will be able to continue to supply our cocoa orders without interruption, even if the disease begins to impact the major cocoa-growing countries in the region," Jeff Beckman, Hershey's director of corporate communications, tells CBS MoneyWatch.

For now, the disease has not effected the cocoa production and operations continue uninterrupted.