286 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



GROWTH OF THE COCOA INDUSTRY. 



U.S A. Depaktment of Commerce and Labour 

 Monograph, 1 



Washington, Feb. 16. 1912.— An instructive and 

 inteiesting report on the cocoa production of the 

 w.'riii and trade therein has just been prepared 

 by the Bureau of Manufactures, Department of 

 Commerce and Labour, from a great variety of 

 reports from almost every country in the world 

 where cocoa is produced. This document covers 

 more thau 50 pages, and from it the information 

 is deduced that the world's production of cocoa 

 in 1911 increased 13 per cent., compared with 

 the previous year, and aggregated a total of 

 551 816,985 pounds. The great increase in the 

 previous five years is shuwn by the returns for 

 19U5, which give* the world's total production 

 of cocua ac 3 17, 440,805 pounds, . . . . . 



The methods of handling and the international 

 movement in cocoa and its products, together 

 with some details of the methods of manufac- 

 ture, with an analysis of the best character of 

 cocoa beanF, is summarized as follows: — 



Raw cocoa is handled principally through mid- 

 dlemen at both shipping and receiving ports. 

 Consumers of raw cocoa— that is, the manufac- 

 turers of chocolate and other cocoa products — 

 do not deal direct with planters, and few manu- 

 facturers themselves cwn plantations, The Por- 

 tuguese Islands San Thome and Principe, Ecu- 

 ador, B azil, Trinidad Gold Coast, Venezuela, 

 and the Dominican Republic are the principal 

 growers of cocoa. San Thome and Principe cocoa 

 is practically all handled through Lisbon. Tbe 

 leading shipping points in the other countries 

 mentioned are Guayaquil in Ecuador, Bahia in 

 Brazil, Port oi Spain in Trinidad, Accra in the 

 Gold Coast, La Guaira in Venezuela, and San- 

 chez in the Dominican Republic. 



The United States ranks first in the list of 

 cocoa-making countries, followed by Germany, 

 France, England, Netherlands, Switzerland, and 

 Spain, in the order named. New York is the 

 principal cocoa market in the United States, 

 the imports of raw cocoa and cocoa shells 

 through that port during the fiscal year 1910 

 having been 104,432,000 pounds, out of a total 

 of 108,668,070 pounds imported into the United 

 States. In Europe, the principal markets are 

 Hamburg, Havre, and London. Quotations, 

 terms of sale, etc., are described in some detail 

 in the report from Havre. 



According to Payen the average composition 

 of good West Indian beans is as follows : — Fat 

 (cocoa butter) 50 per cent starch, 10 per cent ; 

 albuminoids, 20 per cent ; water 12 per cent ; 

 cellulose, 2 per cent ; mineral matter 4 per 

 cent, and theobromine, 2 per cent. The fat, 

 along with the other constituents, makes the 

 beans very nutritious, but too fatty to suit 

 many people's tastes, and in the preparation 

 of cocoa it is separated. 



The chief stages in the manufacture of cocoa 

 products are ; (1) sorting and cleaning of raw 

 beans, (2) roasting, (3) breaking and shelling, 

 (4) grinding of the roasted and broken beans 

 and the addition of other substances, such as 

 sugar and species, (5) molding and packing- 

 The various products of these processes are 

 (1) cocoa shells, (2) cocoa nibs, which are 



simply the broken up pieces nf the roa°ted 

 beans, (3) chocolate, which is the ground nibs 

 with the addition of sugar and flavouring 

 material ; (4) cocoa used for a beverage, which 

 is the ground nibs with m >st of the fat ex- 

 tracted ; (5) cocoa butter. 



Regarding the plan for the valorization of 

 cocoa upon somewhat similar lines to those 

 adopted in Brazil for the valorization of coffee 

 is summed up in this paragraph on the autho- 

 rity of Omar E. Mueller, o* Bahia, showing 

 the aims and purposes and the countries party 

 to the plan, as follows : — 



Th- three countries to paroi'-ipate in the 

 agreement are Portugal, Ecuador and Brazil, 

 representing the cocoa port> of San Thome, 

 Guayaquil and Bahia, respectively. At each of 

 these ports the cocoa exporters and receivers 

 are to nominate a local commission for the 

 direction of local interests. Each of these local 

 commissions will designate a represntative to 

 constitute an Executive Committee of three to 

 reside in some European centre as yet unde- 

 termined, probably Hamburg or Antwerp. 



This executive committee will be empowered 

 to establish periodically a minimum price at 

 which cocoa will be sold. If feasible, it will re- 

 cognize only two grades of cocoa and determine 

 but two corresponding prices. These two grades 

 will be known as superior and good or fair. 



It is expected to control over 50 per cent, of 

 the world's production of cocoa, and this mar- 

 gin. It is optimistically anticipated, will be 

 sufficient to permit the imposition of a mini- 

 mum price upon the world's markets. 



The aim of the valorization coramittae is 

 stated to be to establish i-table conditions and 

 neutralize the speculative fluctuations which 

 have hitherto prevailed with respect to this 

 commodity. This moderate program has gone 

 far to enlist the confidence of local exporters, 

 because it is felt that cocoa planters are already 

 realizing a very good profit of from 75 to 100 

 per cent. net. and that any artificial raiding of 

 the price of cocoa would accrue neither to the 

 advantage of the exporter nor to the country 

 at large, because it would inevitably lead to a 

 decreased consumption of the grade of cocoa 

 raised here and stimulated the output of coun- 

 tries outside the syndicate, such as Trinidad 

 and Haiti. In this respect the conditions are 

 not analogous to those prevailing relative to 

 coffee at the time the coffee valorization was 

 effected. Then the coffee planters were raising 

 so much coffee in excess of what the market 

 could absorb, that they were forced to sell 

 their product below the cost of production. 



The American and the foreign press have 

 both devoted considerable space to reports on 

 the project, the various details of which have 

 been fully discusseid. The financing of the plan 

 is the most important requisite to its success, 

 and the realization of sufficient capital is in 

 doubt. The fact that cocoa beans deteriorate 

 if kept in storage for a length of time offers a 

 serious obstacle to the success of the project. 

 In 1900 Portugal (San Thome and Principe), 

 Ecuador, and Brazil produced 225,152,679 

 pounds of cocoa beans, out of the world's crop 

 of 487,012,136 pounds, or less than one-half,— 

 New York Oil Reporter, Feb. 19. 



