(FORTUNE Magazine) – There's an awful lot of cocoa in Brazil. And in Malaysia and in West Africa. Gill & Duffus Group, a London commodities firm, forecasts a 1987-88 world crop of 2.1 million metric tons. That's about 122,000 tons more than all of us eat. The glut is now in its fourth straight year. Hershey Foods Corp. has increased the size but not the price of some goodies, among them Kisses and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Likewise, Mars Inc. enlarged its Snickers and Milky Ways. Glut or not, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association in the U.S. continues to look for ways to grow and harvest cocoa more efficiently. Why bother, when the industry can't sell what it's got? For one thing, says association president Richard T. O'Connell, ''Americans just aren't munching away at max.'' Annual per capita consumption in the U.S. is ten pounds, vs. 11.8 for the French, 17.4 for Britons, and 18.9 for the Swiss. Lower costs, says O'Connell, could encourage more customers. Then think of the rest of the world. Chocolate eaters are almost unknown in the Orient. Sales drives in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are making some progress. U.S. exports to Japan, which consumes 2.9 pounds per person, were up nearly 60% last year. Rank commercial self-interest aside, adds chocolate's mouthpiece, chocolate's health benefits are often overlooked. As a nutrient, O'Connell says, some milk chocolate a day is as good for you as the proverbial apple. It provides more calcium and more protein.