File this under “Who knew?” Several Fijian news outlets reported that the cocoa sector there will get a boost in the next governmental budget and that a cocoa growers cooperative may actually begin to manufacture chocolate there.
Another African Chocolate Producer
I just read that the South African company Chocolates by Tomes will begin making their own chocolate exclusively from African ingredients. According to an article at iAfrica.com, the company had previously imported its chocolate from Barry Callebaut but decided to begin its own production using cocoa from Ghana and the Côte d’Ivoire, vanilla from Madagascar and sugar and milk powder from South Africa. That’s a great development and I applaud Chocolatier Richard Tomes for taking this step.
A Cocoa Comeback in Latin America
Cocoa from Latin America is making a comeback, at least according to a report in Confectionary News. It is often forgotten that Latin American cocoa dominated the world market until the early years of the twentieth century. After the Spanish colonizers brought cocoa to Spain and from there is quickly spread to the rest of Europe. But once industrialization made the production of chocolate bars possible and affordable, demand for cocoa expanded to levels that Latin American was not able to supply.
The spread of cocoa production followed a pattern first discussed by Francois Ruf, a French agronomist, who hypothesized that cocoa production depends on access to virgin forest land. He coined the phrase “forest rent” to explain that a new cocoa grove on new forest land is initially extremely productive and produces very high yields. As the trees near their life expectancy or are attacked by disease or pests, the yields decline, sometimes precipitously. Replanting in an existing cocoa grove never yields as good a return as planting in new forest lands. So productivity depends on capitalizing on the “forest rent” derived from previously untouched forests. Increase demand, therefore, over time leads to an expansion of cocoa production to areas that support the tree. As long as there was enough forest land available, there was no problem, but eventually, that expansion came to an end. The move to Africa in the mid 1800s is in part explained by the need for more forest land. Continue reading “A Cocoa Comeback in Latin America”
Child Labor in West Africa: Roads not taken – Part 2
The emergence of the child labor issue in West African cocoa economies coincided with the historical low of cocoa prices at the end of the 1990s. While there are other factors that contribute to child labor, poverty is a significant part of the problem. Yes, there are cultural predispositions, but they are not sufficient in explaining the entire phenomenon, especially in light of alternatives for children, i.e., schooling. So dealing with child labor means addressing poverty. There is no way around that. Continue reading “Child Labor in West Africa: Roads not taken – Part 2”
