CHOCOLATE SHORTAGE MAY LEAD EX-COCA FARMERS TO A LEGAL NEW CROP

WASHINGTON -- The companies that bring you M&Ms and Kisses have a sticky
problem: Worldwide demand for chocolate is outstripping supply.

But the people who used to produce coca -- the raw material for cocaine --
might offer a sweet solution: replacing the drug shrub with the cacao tree.

Cacao instead of coca?

The prospect is so delicious that top American candy executives and U.S.
officials conferred with diplomats from Peru about creating a ``chocolate
strategy'' for the next century.

``We think it's a wonderful idea and it has great potential,'' said Susan
Smith, senior vice president at the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, a
trade group involved in the planning. ``Here's a good, decent product that
can make everyone happy.''

Representatives from Hershey and M&M/Mars approached the Clinton
administration with an industrywide concern: The supply of chocolate is
dwindling as new markets boom in Eastern Europe and China while cacao trees
in Africa and Latin America fall victim to pests, disease and deforestation.

Researchers say the temperamental cacao tree needs small-scale farmers to
tend it lovingly in small shady patches, since disease strikes hardest on
huge plantations.

And Peru, as it turns out, is fertile ground. Two years of fierce anti-drug
efforts there have wiped out 40 percent of the coca in production and left
peasants desperate for a new cash crop. With U.S. relief and anti-drug
officials, the chocolate companies plan to stage workshops in Peru in
October on growing cacao, and may provide money to launch the project.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett