Discover The World Cocoa Market

Jan. 18, 2012 - PRLog -- The world cocoa market differentiates between two wide categories of cocoa beans: “fine or flavour” cocoa beans, and “bulk” or “ordinary” cocoa beans, according to the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO). Fine cocoa beans are produced from Criollo or Trinitario cocoa-tree varieties which can be found in Trinidad, Venezuela, Ecuador, Cameroon, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Java and Papua New Guinea.

Bulk cocoa beans come from Forastero trees, planted on large areas of Brazil and West Africa. There are, however, known exceptions to this generalisation. Nacional trees in Ecuador, considered to be Forastero-type trees, produce fine or flavour cocoa. On the other hand, Cameroon cocoa beans, produced by Trinitario-type trees and whose cocoa powder has a distinct and sought-after red colour, are classified as bulk-cocoa beans.

The share of fine or flavour cocoa in the total world production of cocoa beans is just under 5% per annum. The rest are destined for ‘industrial’ chocolate or chocolate confectionery.

The demand for chocolate products is likely to recover from the economic crisis and the trend towards growing consumption of chocolate with higher cocoa content to resume. The demand for fine chocolate will act as a motivation to select better quality cocoa beans and therefore have an impact on the cocoa growing countries. Ivory Coast is the world’s largest-producer of cocoa. The country produces about one-third of global cocoa output and intends to increase its share of the world market to 50 percent.

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