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The Roots of Chocolate & Organic Chocolate

The Cacao tree is very difficult to grow, there are very few instances of it bearing fruit outside its natural setting which is a band 20 degrees north and 20 degrees south of the Equator. It also requires a temperature of at least 60 degrees, and requires year round moisture, so if there is a specific dry season it needs to be irrigated.

If the growing conditions are poor it is more susceptible to the many diseases that are its enemy, pod rots, witches brooms which are fungus-produced external growths and wilts are only a few of its enemies. Rodents such as monkeys, squirrels and rats eat the white pulp surrounding the seeds, avoiding the bitter seeds, even though they will scatter them about.

With proper conditions the seeds will sprout in just days and bear fruit in the third or fourth year. In most of the cacao plantations today the planting are done with cuttings or with seeds that are carefully raised. Cacao seeds only remain viable for 3 months, assuming modern technology is used; they are killed immediately with low temperatures or low humidity. Bearing this in mind you will understand why long trips to transport these plants were out of the question in the past.

Eagerness to introduce these plants to the Old World was in part due to the use of Cacao beans by the Aztecs as food and money. About the size of an orange tree, they have similar leaves that are a little wider and longer than the orange tree. However, unlike the orange tree they flower from small cushions on the trunk and larger branches like other tropical fruit trees. Only one to three percent of the flowers on plantation trees actually bear fruit, which puzzles the growers of today. Because Cacao trees are pollinated only by midges (small gnats) the trees produce poorly in the modern plantations where midges dont grow in abundance.

Organic Chocolate:
Selling for $7.00 a kilogram is quite an increase from the $2.00 per kilogram that Venezuelan farmers were receiving for conventional cacao beans just a few years ago. This price jump is the result of new organic farming methods funded by the Venezuelan government who has put $10 million dollars into research and training.

Being sought for production of high end single bean malt whisky in Europe and the USA organic cacao is bringing the highest price ever to the cocoa growers of Venezuela. These growers are taking their production one step further and have now begun to produce their own chocolate as well.

Nearly half of every day is spent caring for the trees, monkeys, rats and squirrels eat the pulp of the pods, even though they do not eat the seeds. Insects and bad weather are other problems; a river going over its banks can wipe out a stand of young cacao trees in a matter of hours.

Twice the work is required because they use only natural compost on their trees rather than fertilizers that are man made. However this is well worth it when they sell their beans directly to foreign chocolate manufacturers, effectively eliminating the local intermediaries. An association of organic cacao farmers has been created by fifty families who have joined forces to aid each other in this endeavor.

Those who bid on the Venezuelan cocoa have said that it is fine, elegant and has a consistent aroma, it would be good to see more being exported, but only at a fair price. In the seaside village of Cata, a handful of cooperatives have begun processing their own chocolate, as visitors enter the shops of the village the sweet smell of melting chocolate greets them.

Some of the products they offer are chocolate punch, wine and pudding. Asked if they would be exporting their products, tourists have been told that export would be the next step for them.

Seed Newsvine

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