Chocolate: who makes it, who eats it.

Chocolate is one of the most popular foods in the world. It has been traded internationally for centuries, mostly from the underdeveloped to the developed world. Today, the biggest producers are in West Africa.

Chocolate, made from cocoa beans, was first used as a spicy drink by the Maya in Central America and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as far back as 250 A.D. In the early 16th century, Spanish explorers brought cocoa beans to Europe. But at that time, chocolate, and the imported sugar needed to sweeten it, was expensive and reserved for the wealthy.

Today, chocolate seems to be everywhere. In 2005, chocolate sates in the U.S. exceeded $3 billion. But as the graph shows, Americans' chocolate consumption pates in comparison with that of some other countries.

The graphs show the chief cocoa-producing countries and per capita
consumption of chocolate in selected countries. Use the data to
answer the questions below.

Where Chocolate Comes From
(Percentage of World Cocoa Bean Production)

Ivory Coast            40%
Ghana                  16%
Indonesia              15%
Brazil                  6%
Nigeria                 5%
Cameroon                5%
Equador                 3%
Rest of the world      10%

SOURCE: INTERNATIONAL COCOA ORGANIZATION, LONDON

Note: Table made from pie chart.

ANALYZE THE GRAPH

1. What is the difference, in pounds, between Switzerland's per capita consumption of chocolate and that of Sweden?

(a) 4.3

(b) 4.8

(c) 6

(d) 7.3

2. Which country's cocoa production is just slightly more than a third the amount produced by the Ivory Coast?

--

2. Ireland's consumption is how many percentage points higher than that of the U.S.?

(a) 7.6

(b) 5.5

(c) 4.5

(d) 8.1

3. If Netherlands' chocolate consumption remained the same, about how many pounds per capita would have been eaten by 2016?

(a) 60

(b) 80

(c) 100

(d) 90

4. If cocoa bean production in -- grew by 200 percent, its contribution to the world cocoa supply would stilt be six percentage points below that of Indonesia.

5. The total of which three countries' cocoa production equals that of Ghana? --, --, and --

6. What is the average per capita consumption of chocolate, in pounds, in the countries on the graph?

(a) 10.5

(b) 12.5

(c) 16.2

(d) 14

7. Discussion Question: What might account for the fact that cocoa, from which chocolate is made, comes from poorer countries, but is consumed mostly in wealthier countries?

ANSWER KEY

GRAPH EXERCISE

1. [d] 7.3

2. Indonesia

3. [a] 7.6

4. [c] 100

5. Ecuador

6. Cameroon, Nigeria, Brazil

7. [c] 16.2

8. Answers will vary.