Chocolate

Cocoa Production Today 

Production of cocoa today. One hundred years ago, records indicate that the main growing regions of the world were South America 47%, the Caribbean 30%, Africa 15% and SE Asia with 8% of world production. Cocoa production has undergone big shifts since then. In the 2006/07 crop season world production of cacao reached a record 3,592,000 metric tons. Today Africa accounts for 70% of world production followed by SE Asia with 16% and Central and South America having only about 14% of world production.(1) The top four cocoa producing countries are Ivory Coast with 38.6% and Ghana with 20.6%, Indonesia with 13.1% and Nigeria with 4.7% of world production.

Classification of cocoa. Cocoa is a member of the Stericuliaceae family.(2,3) This family is part of the Order Malvales. Famous and familiar members of the Malvales include cotton and Hibiscus, both members of the Malvaceae family.

Within the Stericuliaceae there are two genera, Herrenia and Theobroma, that have significant or useful plants. The closest relatives of cocoa are T. grandiflora (cupuaçu) which is cultivated in the Amazon and has a giant fruit that is valued for its pulp surrounding the seeds.(4) T. bicolor (patasta, macambo). T. bicolor is cultivated throughout Central and South America. It has sweet pulp that is eaten raw or is dried, toasted and eaten. Seeds of T. bicolor are often buried and fermented for six weeks. The seeds are then dug up and used as an additive to drinks.

Varieties of cocoa. Cocoa pods, like apples, come in different shapes, sizes and colors. Pods may be long, furrowed and warty with a yellow color when ripe—typical of the Criollo type of Central Mexico.

Pods from trees native to the Amazon Basin called Forestario, are more typically melon shaped, have smooth skin and can be yellow or red to purple when ripe. The pod has a tough fibrous husk, botanically called a capsule. Within the pod are borne 30 to 50 seeds embedded within a white sugary pulp. An intermediate subspecies that has been identified and speculated to be a cross between Forestario and Criollo is Trinitario cocoa. These cocoas as the name suggests are native to or grew naturally in close proximity to the island of Trinidad. The Trinitario subspecies has an intermediate pod shape and color.

A recent study of the relationship of cocoas throughout Central and South America suggests that as many as ten distinct subspecies of cocoa can be identified.(5) These include: 

    Maranon     
    Guiana 
    Contamana 
    Curaray 
    Nanay 
    Iquitos 
    Nacional 
    Purus 
    Criollo and 
    Amelonado.

Suffice it to say, there is a lot of variation of cocoa across its original range of distribution before the Spanish and other colonists moved cocoa around the world.

 

References

 

  1. International Cocoa Organization (ICCO). International Cocoa Organization Annual Report 2005/06. pg. 13. http://www.icco.org/pdf/An_report/anrep0506english.pdf; London, United Kingdom, 2007.Cuatrecasas, J. Cacao and its Allies: A Taxonomic Revision of the Genus Theobroma. Bull. U.S. National Museum 35 (3): 379-614, 1964.

  2. Bletter, N., Daly, D.C. Cacao and its Relatives in South America: An overview of Taxonomy, Ecology, Biogeography, Chemistry and Ethnobotany. pg 31-68. In Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao. McNeil, C. L. (ed): Univ. Press Florida; Gainesville, FL, 2006. 
  3. Kufer, J, McNeil, C.L. The Jaguar Tree (Theobroma bicolor Bonpl.). pg 90-104. In Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao. McNeil, C. L. (ed): Univ. Press Florida; Gainesville, FL, 2006.
  4. Motomayor, J.C., Lachenaud, P., Wallace de Silva e Mota, J., Loor, R., Kuhn, D.N., Brown, S., Schnell, R. Geographic and genetic population differentiation of the Amazonian chocolate tree (Theobroma cacao L). PLoS ONE 3(1): e3311, 2008