70 COCOA 



The chief producing areas are up country, in the 

 neighbourhood of Kandy and Matale. Ceylon cocoa 

 is washed during the process of preparation for 

 market. 



Nigeria, like its neighbour the Gold Coast, is one 

 of the newest cocoa-growing countries. The areas of 

 production are in the colony of Lagos and in the South- 

 ern Provinces of the Protectorate, the principal centres 

 being Agege and Ibadan. Not only is Nigerian cocoa 

 all grown by native farmers, but it is practically all 

 marketed through the agency of native middlemen. 

 In comparison with the Gold Coast, the cocoa industry 

 of Nigeria is in its infancy as regards the marketing 

 organization. Generally speaking, the output is of 

 a low grade, inferior to average quality Gold Coast 

 cocoa. But the quality of the present-day output 

 must not be taken as evidence of Nigeria's possibilities 

 as a competitor in the cocoa world. Here is some 

 evidence which throws a broader light on the situation. 

 In the neighbourhood of Agege there are several model 

 farms, and not long ago the cocoa they turned out 

 began to win a very good reputation as superior quality 

 West African produce. We visit these farms, and can 

 hardly believe we are in West Africa, so well are they 

 laid out, equipped with sweating boxes and drying 

 grounds, and provided with good roads. The model 

 farmers, too, strike us as being exceptionally well 

 educated and very much abreast with the times. One 

 of them, a lawyer who has forsaken the Bar for the 

 more remunerative business of cocoa growing, proudly 

 shows us his fermenting boxes, and follows up an ex- 

 planation of their virtues by telling us that he does 

 not use them nowadays, because the world's shortage 

 of foodstuffs has so raised prices that he can get as 



