Some 95 per cent of global cocoa production comes from small farms and in tropical environments.  Cocoa is produced from a tree that can grow as tall as 15 metres or 50 foot.  It thrives in the shade and humidity of a tropical forest and is so sensitive to heat and humidity it only grows 15 degrees north or south of the earth’s equator.

There are more than 14 million workers producing cocoa of which 10.5 million are in Africa.  Today, cocoa-farming remains a labour intensive and demanding source of income but also one that offers a natural competative advantage to the regions in which it is grown.

Cocoa is a delicate and sensitive crop.  Trees begin to bear fruit – commonly known as cocoa pods -- in the fifth year, although some cocoa might produce fruit in the third and forth years. Once the trees are established, careful attention must be paid to the them to ensure they remain free of disease and produce good yields  A tree can produce for 25 years with well-prepared land and careful management.  A cocoa pod has a rough leathery husk about 3 cm thick. It is filled with sweet pulp in which is encased 30 to 50 large seeds.  These are cocoa beans.  The farmer extracts the beans ferments them in heaps under banana leaves. Typically a farmer sells these dried beans to a local buying agent who aggregates the cocoa and ships it for further sale to wholesalers or processors.

Chocolate is made from cocoa, the dried and partially fermented fatty seed of the cacao tree. The cocoa bean is half cocoa butter and the other half is the cocoa solids that we know as cocoa powder. For further information, visit the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) website.

Life on a cocoa farm
75% of the world’s cocoa is grown on family farms in West Africa.  Cocoa farms are generally small and unmechanised. As the average cocoa-farming family makes but $x per year, often the whole family works together – particularly during harvest.
 
Farming cocoa is a labour intensive and demanding process.  Like any agricultural activity it can also be quite dangerous – particularly if you’re a child.
 
•    Building a farm.  Establishing a new farm is a challenging task as a farmer works in dense, tropical forest – that has probably just been cleared of the valuable forest trees. The remaining forest area must be cleared of unwanted trees, shrubs and debris and sometimes the canopy must be thinned to enable the newly planted cocoa  seedlings to flourish.
 
•    Nurturing your seedlings . Good tree management means regular inspection, pruning, clearing of weeds, fertilisation when necessary and monitoring for disease.
 
•    Collecting the cocoa pods: Cocoa trees  are typically harvested several times a year using a special knife.  If the pod is high up the tree, special skill is required to cut the pods while staying out of the way as it drops to the ground.  Cocoa pods are heavy!  The pods are then gathered from the farm floor and are then broken open – ideally using a wooden baton.

•    Fermentation: The pods weigh ½ - 1 kilogram or 1 – 2.25 pounds and are split by hand.  Inside the pod are the cocoa beans – and a sweet pulp that local children love.  The beans are removed, covered with leaves and left to ferment, ideally for five days.  This enhances and develops the flavour of the final product.

•    The beans are then dried in the sun for up to 10 days, usally on bamboo mats suspended about one metre above the ground.

•    A step closer to chocolate: Once the fermented beans have dried, they are bagged and ready to be transported to the buying sheds. These sheds are often far from the farms so families must transport heavy loads – often carried on their heads – long distances.

In each of these steps, the entire family often works together. An individual farmer cannot have much, if any, influence on the price of cocoa and, as such, the pressure to keep his or her costs low is enormous. Therefore as cocoa growing is so labour intensive and the prices are fixed at a given time, minimising labour costs is essential if a profit is to be made. 

Most farmers sell to agents or small traders who then sell on to larger traders and eventually exporters or processors.  Most cocoa is exported in the form of beans although some is processed, in producing countries, into cocoa powder or cocoa butter.

Cocoa is traded on the world market in a sophisticated system.  It is bought and sold through contracts with prices that can vary daily depending on supply and demand worldwide.  Most cocoa finds its way into chocolate, confectionary and other food products although very small amounts of cocoa butter are also used in the cosmetics industry.