The bitter future of chocolate? How drought and a youth exodus threaten Mexico’s prized cocoa

As prices soar, farmers are facing the worst harvests in decades, while traditional production methods passed down for generations are being lost

Edilberto Morales has been farming cocoa, the key ingredient in chocolate, in the Lacadon jungle in southern Mexico for decades. Typically, he harvests about 1,000kg of cocoa pods a year, but only produced half that last year, due to drought. It was one of the worst harvests of his lifetime.

“Climate change has affected us a lot,” says Morales, from the town of Maravilla Tenejapa in Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala. “The lack of rain directly affects the solidification of the flower. Without rain, cocoa pods do not develop in seasons of intense heat. On this plot, we used to harvest 1,000kg a year on average; the most drastic change was the last harvest in 2024 when we harvested 500kg.”

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