CHOCOLATE DROUGHT

Chocolate Drought

Chocolate Drought

Introduction

The subject of cocoa sustainability is garnering increased attention from members of the cocoa supply chain as well as among consumers across the world. And for good reason; it is clear that the challenges at origin are many, including insufficient infrastructure, education and income levels that challenge farmers in the cocoa sector and also pose a threat to our industry in terms of future cocoa availability. Today, the increased number of sustainability programs being developed across the cocoa origins is encouraging. However, there is a compelling need for a stepped-up collaborative approach to cocoa sustainability to achieve the impact needed across the entire cocoa-farming sector. This article is adapted from the article “Would there be a chocolate drought? World's supply of sustainable cocoa could run out of by 2014”, made to the Cocoa Merchants Association of America in March 2011 and offers a case study of one sustainability program that demonstrates the power and scale that come from collaboration.

The Problem

There appears to be a growing consensus that a severe cocoa-supply shortage is a distinct reality in the near future. The math is simple; a mere 3 percent growth in consumption would require the addition of nearly 1.8 million metric tons of cocoa by 2014. In other words, the cocoa crop would need to increase by nearly 50 percent to meet projected demand. The entire global agricultural sector faces scarcity issues as we brace ourselves to provide food and energy to our rapidly growing world population. And cocoa is no exception (Ampomah and Frimpong 1994, 54).

One of the biggest challenges to this pending agricultural supply crisis is poor crop yield. And we know this is particularly the case with cocoa, where yields are quite poor due to lack of training and inputs. Pests and disease pressures claim an estimated 30 to 40 percent of the crop each year. The lowest yields can be found in the largest origin countries, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, where yields average 450 to 500 kilograms per hectare. The solution cannot be land-based expansion because farm land is less available and the environmental impact of such expansion is not desirable. Instead, farming efforts must focus on intensification efforts to achieve significantly higher yields (Ampomah and Frimpong 2002, 90).

The Opportunity

The good news is that we know that higher yields are possible with the right planting material and farming techniques. Plenty of examples abound, from the famous BAL estates of Malaysia to the CCN-51 clone in Ecuador, both of which have recorded yields in excess of 4,000kg/ha. One particularly exciting example is the work being done today with an Ecuadorian “super tree” thought to be related to the National variety (producer of the flavor grade Arriba cocoa). National is a traditionally low-yielding variety, yet these “super trees” have achieved yields closer to the CCN-51 clone while retaining the more traditional Arriba flavor.

The Tools

All of the tools needed to deliver higher yields are readily ...