Schmidt Agricola is a large agricultural company producing soybeans, corn and cotton in Bahia, Brazil, one of the country's new-frontier agricultural areas fit for large-scale, high-tech farming. It recently added a new crop to its fields: cocoa.
Production of the chocolate-making ingredient is expanding outside of the main growing area in West Africa as farmers in places such Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia see potential profit in the crop.
Brazil - an agricultural powerhouse and the top global exporter of soy, corn, coffee and sugar - has seen cocoa plantations spreading over degraded pastureland in the Amazon region, as well as in large farms in the highly developed grain belt. In Ecuador, annual production has risen to between 400,000 and 430,000 tons in 2022-2023 from 287,000 tons five years ago, according to estimates by the International Cocoa Organization and Ecuador's exporting group Anecacao.
"You will need technology, you need to seek higher yields to be more profitable. Grains and fiber will continue to be the main crops for us, but we see cocoa gaining more area in the next five years." Jeroen Douglas, director of the Netherlands-based non-profit Solidaridad, which targets more sustainable supply chains, sees Brazil's role in the market growing, in the same way it has with other agricultural commodities such as soy and corn.
IFAD's head Alvaro Lario said it was important for smallholders to improve productivity, distribution and marketing. The agency organizes training on agricultural techniques to increase production per hectare.
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