Growing Cocoa in the 21st Century:
The Countries and the Culture

While cocoa is a very widely used commodity, many people the world over actually have no real idea where cocoa is grown. Additionally, even more people have even less of an idea of the culture that surrounds the growing and cultivation of cocoa in these various countries.

The leading producers of cocoa in the world today are Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia. Indeed, Ivory Coast alone accounts for nearly 50% of all of the cocoa cultivated on the planet. Other major producers of cocoa are: Nigeria, Brazil, Cameroon, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Colombia and Mexico.

The vast majority of the cocoa cultivated in these nations is exported to countries such as the United States, the nations of the European Union, Australia and other "developed" countries. On balance, the cocoa that is exported to these countries is transformed into a wide array of other consumer products.

As referenced, Ivory Coast leads the way in international cocoa production. Annually, more than 1.5 million tons of cocoa is produced in that nation. In Ghana, approximately a half million tons of cocoa is produced each year. Approximately the same amount of cocoa is produced in Indonesia on an annual basis.

The amount of cocoa in the other primary nations that cultivate and harvest the crop is significantly less than what is seen in the top three producing nations. For example, in Mexico approximately 40,000 tons of cocoa are produced each year. In Ecuador, that figure is approximately 85,000 tons. Nigeria hails towards the higher end at approximately 170,000 tons of cocoa produced each and every year.

Of course, the total amount of cocoa cultivated and harvested in each country varies from year to year. A crop and a commodity, there are fluctuations in production.

Historically, when it came to the culture surrounding the cultivation, harvesting and production of cocoa, the vast majority of the cocoa "farming" was undertaken by a particularly poor group of people. Indeed, cocoa farmers historically were some of the poorest planters to be found anywhere on the planet.

In years past, there was a great disparity between the cost of cocoa on the major international commodities markets and the amount of money that was paid to the individuals responsible for cultivating the crop in the fields.

In recent years, in some countries around the world, a number of cocoa farmers have come together, have united, to form an alliance to better protect their interests. Through coops and similar types of unified ventures, there has been some improvement in the financial status of cocoa farmers in some of the countries around the world that produce a larger share of this commodity.

Even with some progress being made in the arena of protecting and enhancing the interests of cocoa farmers in some locations around the globe, many of the countries in which cocoa is cultivated have volatile political climates and economic instability. As a result, in some cases any progress made by cocoa farmers is offset by the negative impact of political and economic instability that dominates some of the nations in which this crop is grown.