The Big Producers and the Cacao Varieties

Goal: After this lesson you can name the top cacao producers, explain the geographic irony of where cacao grows now, and tell the main varieties apart. Subject: Geography | Run time: about 7 minutes

Quick recall

Last time we covered the cacao tree. Two quick questions. One: how wide is the cacao belt? Only about 20 degrees North to 20 degrees South, the narrowest of any major commodity (Coe & Coe, 2013). Two: what pollinates cacao? Tiny forest midges (Coe & Coe, 2013).

Why this matters

Here is the irony at the center of chocolate. Cacao is from the Americas. It was domesticated and made sacred in Mesoamerica thousands of years ago. But today most of the world's cacao does not grow there. Two West African countries, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, grow well over half of it (International Cocoa Organization, 2023). How that happened is the social-studies story. What it looks like now is the geography.

The idea

Start with the order. Cote d'Ivoire is by far the largest producer, about 2.18 million tonnes, roughly 42 percent of the world's cacao. Ghana is second at about 883,000 tonnes, around 17 percent. Then Indonesia at about 13 percent, and after that Nigeria, Ecuador, and Brazil (International Cocoa Organization, 2023). So the top of the list is West Africa, with the Americas, cacao's homeland, now further down. Next, the plant itself comes in varieties, and they are not equal. About 80 percent of world production is Forastero (for-ah-STEH-roh), a hardy, basic, somewhat bitter cacao that wholesales for roughly 2,400 to 2,800 dollars a tonne (International Cocoa Organization, 2023). About 15 percent is Trinitario (tree-nee-TAH-ree-oh), a balanced hybrid. And a tiny sliver, around 2 percent, is Criollo (kree-OH-yoh), a rare and complex cacao that can fetch 5,000 to over 10,000 dollars a tonne (International Cocoa Organization, 2023). So most chocolate is made from the cheapest, hardiest bean, and the prized flavor beans are rare. Now hold the human number next to the geography. In Cote d'Ivoire, the farmer who grows the world's most cacao often earns somewhere around 50 to 84 cents a day (Fairtrade Foundation, 2023). Remember that figure. The economics lessons come back to it.

Picture it

Look at the map on this lesson. The markers are the top producers, sized by how much they grow, with Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana darkest at the top. Notice the green belt is the same thin equatorial ribbon, but the heaviest production now sits in West Africa, far from the Mesoamerican homeland where the story began.

Remember this

The fact to carry out: cacao comes from the Americas, but Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana now grow most of it, mostly the hardy Forastero variety, and the farmers there earn around 50 to 84 cents a day (International Cocoa Organization, 2023; Fairtrade Foundation, 2023). Where a crop grows, and who profits from it, can drift very far from where it began.

Quick check

Quick check. Which two countries grow more than half the world's cacao today? Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, both in West Africa (International Cocoa Organization, 2023).

Key Takeaways

• Cote d'Ivoire grows about 42 percent of the world's cacao and Ghana about 17 percent, so West Africa leads, far from cacao's American homeland (International Cocoa Organization, 2023).
• About 80 percent of production is the hardy, basic Forastero variety; rare Criollo can sell for many times more (International Cocoa Organization, 2023).
• Cacao farmers in Cote d'Ivoire often earn only about 50 to 84 cents a day (Fairtrade Foundation, 2023).
• Where a crop grows and who profits can drift far from where it began.

Sources

• Fairtrade Foundation. (2023). Cocoa farmer income and poverty reduction report. https://www.fairtrade.net
• International Cocoa Organization. (2023). Quarterly bulletin of cocoa statistics (Vol. XLIX, No. 1). https://www.icco.org