Mars pours millions into unlocking cocoa genome

WASHINGTON – To save chocolate lovers from the agony of a potential candy bar shortage, McLean, Va., candy giant Mars is investing $10 million in a five-year project to develop cacao trees that fight drought, disease and poor harvests.

Mars will announce today that it is partnering with IBM and the Department of Agriculture to sequence and analyze the entire cocoa genome. The team will be identifying the characteristics that make a better cacao tree. Then they plan to breed the genetically superior specimens to battle the foes that have shrunk the number of beans to make chocolate over the years.

“We have the ability as a private company to take charge of the future,” said Howard-Yana Shapiro, global director of plant science for Mars.

Unlocking the secrets of the genome, and eliminating the guesswork in traditional breeding, could bring economic stability to the 6.5 million small family cocoa farmers around the world and help fend off the environmental assaults that inflict $700 million to $800 million in damages to farmers each year, Shapiro said.

Mars plans to make the research results free and accessible through the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture, a group that supports agricultural innovation, as they become available. The intent is to prevent opportunists from patenting the plant’s key genes.

Although chocolate seems ubiquitous, the cocoa on which it depends is a volatile crop. West Africa, which produces 70 percent of the world’s cocoa, has been hammered by bad weather in the past few years.

In the past year, cocoa prices have risen almost 50 percent as global supply of the beans has shrunk.

Those kind of economics have focused scientific attention on the cacao tree. In recent years, wheat, rice and corn have been the most common subject of genetic research and alterations. The Mars initiative is among the few genetic studies of cocoa.

“It’s forward-thinking,” said David Morris, senior analyst with market research firm Mintel. “Looking across the board at commodity price increases and the fact that the planet will be increasingly taxed to produce food commodities, they’re planning accordingly.”