Luxury foods

Cacoa (Theobroma cacao) is a small (4–8 m tall) evergreen tree in the family Malvaceae, native to the deep tropical regions of Central and South America. Its seeds, cocoa beans, are used to make cocoa mass, cocoa powder, and chocolate. Cacao production has increased from 1.5 million tons in 1983-1984 to 3.5 million tons in 2003-2004, almost entirely due to the expansion of the production area rather than to yield increases. Cacao is grown both by large agroindustrial plantations and small producers, the bulk of production coming from millions of farmers who have a few trees each. A tree begins to bear when it is four or five years old. A mature tree may have 6,000 flowers in a year, yet only about 20 pods. About 1,200 seeds (40 pods) are required to produce 1 kg (2.2 lb) of cocoa paste.

Organization: FAO
Author: J. De La Cruz Medina, M. A. Vargas Ortiz and O. A. Del Angel Coronel
Technical Editor: Danilo Mejía
Last Reviewed: 13/06/2011
(in Spanish)