Your favourite chocolates are under threat from climate change, scientists warn

New York cocoa prices were above $10,000 a tonne on Wednesday, below a peak of over $12,500 in mid-December. — Photography id-art / Getty Images, via ETX Daily Up

Climate change drove weeks of crop-withering temperatures last year in the West African countries that underpin the world's chocolate supply, hitting harvests and likely further stoking record prices, researchers said Wednesday.

Farmers in the region -- which account for some 70 percent of global cacao production -- have struggled with heat, disease and unusual rainfall in recent years, which have all contributed to falling production.