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Language: en-GB

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In the last few years, there have been 

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a lot of breathless news articles
about the upcoming shortage of chocolate.

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Around the world, demand for chocolate is
rising, particularly in China and India,

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and the supply isn't matching it. 

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It turns out that the cocoa beans
that get turned into chocolate

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are a really difficult crop to grow.

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Cocoa needs fairly specific
climate conditions.

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It needs a lot of management. 

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And about 30 to 40% of the entire world's
crop of cocoa

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is just lost to pests
and diseases every year.

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So what the modern world needs is new,
hardier, more pest

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resistant varieties of cocoa
with higher yields.

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Botanists
send plant cuttings around the world,

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so they can cross
breed them and see what the results are.

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But the trouble is: if you're sending
cuttings around the world,

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you might be sending diseases with them,
and that could be devastating.

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Which is why in a rural bit
of southern England, there

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sits the International Cocoa
Quarantine Centre.

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- The quarantine process
lasts for two years.

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The reason why it is so long
is because viruses

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can potentially stay latent in the plant
for a long period of time.

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We generally receive plant material
from what we call

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"gene banks",
so these are the research centres

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that have collections of lots
of different types of cocoa plants.

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That plant material arrives
as what we call "bud sticks".

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We will inspect that material
in the laboratory, make sure there's

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no signs of fungal spores
or insects on it.

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But whilst it's quite easy to spot a pest
or a fungal problem,

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viral diseases can be much more difficult
to spot.

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- When a researcher or grower orders 

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a cutting from here, they know that
they won't also get something nasty

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that could infect their 

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existing cocoa crop
or even their entire region's cocoa crop.

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But what they'll receive
isn't the original plant that was sent in.

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This isn't like quarantine for parcels
or for people.

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They don't take an incoming cocoa plant,
put it in the bit of this warehouse

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that I'm not allowed to be in because it's
quarantined, and then just send it on.

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After the two years' quarantine,
the centre here has a known safe plant,

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one of these that I'm actually allowed
to stand near, and then they can send

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cuttings out on request,
over and over and over again.

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- There are other quarantine centres
for other plants.

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There's a quarantine facility
for bananas, for example.

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I believe there's one in Scotland
for potatoes.

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A particular thing about cocoa
is that a lot of the pests

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and diseases of cocoa are only found
in particular geographical regions.

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If growers can be supplied with plants
which are more resilient to these threats,

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so more resilient to pests and diseases,

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and more resilient 

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to extreme temperatures, then that helps
in securing the future of the crop.

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- There is one obvious question, of course,
if all the unsafe cocoa

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that might have pests in it is sitting
somewhere around here in rural England...

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what if one of those pests escapes?

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- In the UK, we don't grow cocoa. 

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It's too cold,
but that's actually a positive thing

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in terms of the location
of the quarantine centre.

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So the fact that we're located
in a country that does not grow cocoa

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means there's
no risk of pests and diseases

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which are endemic to cocoa
entering the facility.

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So if we were to receive any material
which had a nasty disease,

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that material would be discarded. 

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It would be autoclaved
just as a precaution, but

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the chance of it
establishing here would be almost zero.

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- If there does end up being a worldwide
cocoa shortage,

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it doesn't mean that the grocery store
shelves will end up empty.

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It just means that the price of chocolate
will rise and rise and rise

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as supply falls. 

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And the big manufacturers
would very much like to make sure

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that chocolate
does not go back to being a luxury.

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And the folks here at the quarantine
centre 

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are doing their bit
to make sure that doesn't happen.