You’re eating too much chocolate. And it’s getting so out of control that the world could be headed towards a disaster if it doesn’t stop.

Chocolate shortages are becoming a regular thing. We are suffering the worst chocolate shortages in more than 50 years. Last year, the world consumed(消耗) 70,000 metric tons more cocoa than it produced. By 2020, that number could increase to 1 million metric tons.

The problem is, for one, a supply issue. Dry weather in West Africa has greatly reduced production in the region. It has wiped out over 30 percent of global cocoa production. Because of this, cocoa farming has proven a very tough business, and many farmers have shifted to more profitable crops, like corn, as a result.

Then there’s the world’s huge appetite for chocolate. China growing love for it is of particular concern. The Chinese are buying more and more chocolate each year. Still, they each only eat about 5 percent of what the average Western European eats. There’s also the rising popularity of dark chocolate, which contains more cocoa than traditional chocolate bars.

For these reasons, cocoa prices have climbed by more than 60 percent since 2012, when people started eating more chocolate than the world could produce. And chocolate makers have, in turn, been forced to adjust by raising the price of their bars.

Efforts to change the growing imbalance have inspired an innovation(革新，创新). Specifically, an agricultural research group is developing trees that can produce up to seven times the amount of beans that traditional cocoa trees can.

In this process, chocolate, like the chicken and strawberries, will go from tasty to forgettable on the road to plenty. It’s unclear whether anyone will mind it if it keeps prices down. And the industry certainly won’t mind, as long as it helps to deal with the shortage.