Deadly Ebola puts world supply of chocolate under threat

Ivory Coast: Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa supplier, has shut off it's borders with severely affected Liberia and Guinea, which has decimated the bean-picking work force.

Our entire world's supply of chocolate has been put under threat because of the Ebola outbreak in Western Africa.

Ivory Coast, the world's largest producer of cocoa beans, has shut down it's borders with Guinea and Liberia, which has left the nation's bean-picking work force highly depleted.

The two countries west of the Ivorian border, are among the countries worst affected by the virus.

Ivory Coast is responsible for supplying 30% of all of the planet's cocoa and the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) is aware of the implications such a move may have on the chocolate industry.

The WCF has been in communication with it's members on how best to tackle the problem and is expected to announce it's Coca Industry Response to Ebola Initiative on Wednesday.

Senior advisor for the WCF, Tim McCoy, admitted he could sense the caution felt by Ivorian residents on a recent trip to the country.

"Going into meetings where you always shake hands and often, with men and women, you do the cheek kiss thing, they weren't doing that," he said.

The disease was first picked up in Guinea last December and has since spread to bordering countries Sierra Leone and Guinea, with isolated cases now beginning to crop up in Europe.

The NHS recently carried out an eight-hour exercise to see how Britain would deal with a possible Ebola outbreak.

Actors up and down the country simulated symptoms of the virus while ministers and medical professionals played through scenarios across the nation.

The mock-up gave Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt confidence that the health service is well equipped should the worst happen.

"I feel doubly reassured that we have robust plans in place in the event that we get an Ebola case in the UK," he said.