Caribbean Export OUTLOOK 2016 - 2017

OUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Strengthening the Sector on the Supply Side through Innovation Fine Cocoa:

By Vernon Barrett

world’s total production, prior to the discovery of crude oil and the establishment of the twin- island republic’s petrochemical industry. Over 30,000 tonnes of cocoa beans were exported at the peak of production in the 1920s. Although the sector went into decline in the post-war period, to this day there are still several large cocoa estates (over 500 acres in size) which are exclusively growing the single cocoa crop, primarily for export of the beans. However, across the wider Caribbean there are, in reality, very few cocoa farmers. Rather there are many subsistence farmers who grow cocoa as one of several crops and their acreages are, individually, fairly small. The traditional construct of the cocoa sector was such that these small farmers could only sell their freshwet cocoa beans to a government-controlled centralised processing facility where it was purchased at a fairly fixed price, then fermented and dried. The same government entity (usually designated as the country’s Cocoa Board) also controlled the onward sale of these processed beans to buyers overseas – traders and/or end users. Most of the value-added processing into cocoa butter, cocoa

The legendary fine cocoa sector of the Caribbean is entering a period of renaissance. The transformation has been triggered by the application of innovative industry models that are more relevant to the prevailing social and economic context in Caribbean countries. This sector’s transition is facilitating investors and stakeholders to capitalise on the many attractive opportunities infine cocoa, drivenby the increased global consumer demand for these quality beans and their diverse consumer derivatives. Fine cocoa beans have been grown, dried and fermented in the Caribbean for well over 300 years. When the crop was first established by the colonial powers, using cocoa plants from South and Central America, regional countries were in an altogether different dispensation. Those countries, with their cheap labour and land, were producing raw materials (dried cocoa beans) as inputs for value-added processing in the metropolitan countries where the quality of the product was held in high regard.

paste, cocoa liquor, chocolate, etc. was done in these foreign countries.

As we entered the 21st Century, the Caribbean still had cocoa trees and the cocoa pods from which the ubiquitous chocolate food and drink ingredients of Western diets are derived. Although much was changing and continues to evolve – in terms of the downstream chocolate production worldwide and global consumption trend towards dark chocolate, health drinks, super foods, mini “bean-to-bar” processing facilities, etc.– the source of cocoa growing in the Caribbean fields had hardly changed. Yet, beyond the rural communities and cocoa fields, most Caribbean countries have developed in many aspects with the emergence of large metropolitan cities. Even the smaller islands have economically important tourist resort towns. Urban migration appears to conflict with rural economic development. In these developing countries, the economics of growing cocoa beans has radically changed since its inception, rendering the current cocoa industry model obsolete and in need of significant innovation.

Trinidad and Tobago, in particular, was a cocoa dominated economy accounting for 20% of the

54

www.carib-export.com