Cocoa Farming and Agriculture

dance thailand dance thailand culture 86525 ws

THAILAND, LAND OF SMILES &  GENIUS CACAO GENETICS

Thailand is famous for its smiling faces, tropical islands, beautiful beaches, full moon parties and ancient Buddhist temples. And even when it comes to favorite cuisines of the world, there is no doubt about it that Thailand’s culinary classics are high-up in the foodie charts. Thai cuisine is rightly one of the reasons why the …

THAILAND, LAND OF SMILES &  GENIUS CACAO GENETICS Read More »

Farm Center Drone1

STARTING AND DEVELOPING THE BAHIA CACAO BUSINESS

Tuta and Juliana Aquino are Brazilian natives that own and run a Cacao Origin located in the State of Bahia-Brazil, where they produce speciality cacao beans since 2016 with a small yearly production of 20 Metric Tons. Besides providing their Vale Potumuju beans to local Bean to Bar makers, they also started, in 2018, their …

STARTING AND DEVELOPING THE BAHIA CACAO BUSINESS Read More »

Koa Image

AN EXPLORATORY INTERVIEW WITH KOA ON THEIR ‘RADICAL TRANSPARENCY BLOCKCHAIN-BASED SYSTEM’

Koa is a Swiss-Ghanaian business that focuses on creating a new revenue generation stream for cocoa farmers by processing cocoa pulp into juice, concentrate and Powder. Whereas cocoa farmers rely on the cocoa pulp for cocoa bean fermentation, its excesses lead to food waste and elongation of the fermentation process. So, harvesting the excess cocoa …

AN EXPLORATORY INTERVIEW WITH KOA ON THEIR ‘RADICAL TRANSPARENCY BLOCKCHAIN-BASED SYSTEM’ Read More »

24264488023 d8c9746058 k1

CÔTE D’IVOIRE ON TRACK FOR GOOD HARVEST

Côte d’Ivoire has recently benefited from bouts of rain followed by sunshine, which has diminished the concerns of Black Pod disease that we reported a few weeks earlier.  In the main crop-growing region of Soubre, rains were below average.  There is less black pod disease because the sun is out. If the weather continues to …

CÔTE D’IVOIRE ON TRACK FOR GOOD HARVEST Read More »

Cocoa Nigeria

IS NIGERIA’S COCOA SECTOR RENNAISANCE GOING TO CAUSE THE INTENDED WINNERS TO LOSE MORE THAN THEY WIN? 

My Analysis on Cocoa Diaries Interview with CFAN President. My Thoughts First, I think I can fairly say that since Mr Adeola is the Nigerian Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria’s president and one of the leading figures championing the Nigerian Cocoa sector Renaissance, his thoughts and opinions reflect close to the consensus of the team …

IS NIGERIA’S COCOA SECTOR RENNAISANCE GOING TO CAUSE THE INTENDED WINNERS TO LOSE MORE THAN THEY WIN?  Read More »

silva El-Castillo

­NICARAGUAN CACAO ALREADY TURNED MANY CHOCOLATE MAKERS INTO AWARD WINNERS. WHAT MAKES CERTAIN NICARAGUAN CACAO SO SPECIAL?

Nicaragua: A Land of Flavour Diversity With a yearly production of around 10,000 tonnes, cacao is small beer in the Nicaraguan economy. Especially compared to coffee of which the country produces some 140,000 tonnes per year. Though small in size, the cacao industry has grown steadily and is expected to have a yearly production of …

­NICARAGUAN CACAO ALREADY TURNED MANY CHOCOLATE MAKERS INTO AWARD WINNERS. WHAT MAKES CERTAIN NICARAGUAN CACAO SO SPECIAL? Read More »

farm centre

NEW SERIES! RUNNING A TREE TO BAR BUSINESS: PRIME CACAO – THE INSIDE STORY

Tuta and Juliana Aquino are Brazilian natives that own and run a Cacao Origin located in the State of Bahia-Brazil, where they produce specialty cacao beans since 2016 with a small yearly production of 20 Metric Tons. Besides providing their Vale Potumuju beans to local Bean to Bar makers, they also started, in 2018, their …

NEW SERIES! RUNNING A TREE TO BAR BUSINESS: PRIME CACAO – THE INSIDE STORY Read More »

spidtech

SPIDTECH IDENTIFIES PESTS WITH YOUR SMARTPHONE CAMERA

SPIDTECH, an app that collects data from users to analyse and create a map showing the distribution of pests and plant diseases in different parts of the Philippines, includes remote monitoring. This feature is valuable as it facilitates data collection on pests and diseases. We found the app on the Google Play store with the …

SPIDTECH IDENTIFIES PESTS WITH YOUR SMARTPHONE CAMERA Read More »

Cocoa pod

RESEARCH REVEALS POTENTIAL REDUCTIONS OF LEAD AND CADMIUM IN COCOA TREES

Cadmium and lead in Cocoa is a serious problem which we have written about before when the ICCO planned research, and when the IAEA became involved in helping to track the movement of heavy metals through the plant. Now a detailed scientific report funded through a California Proposition 65 settlement was released today by As …

RESEARCH REVEALS POTENTIAL REDUCTIONS OF LEAD AND CADMIUM IN COCOA TREES Read More »

KOA 1

KOA’S ECONOMIC OPERATING MODEL IN GHANA

This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series KOA’S BUSINESS EXPLOITS IN THE GHANAIAN COCOA SECTOR

During my master’s Thesis in 2019, I reflected on almost all the known initiatives the Ghana Government and industry stakeholders announced to have implemented to address the livelihood changes of smallholder farmers. I concluded that: It is not real for smallholder farmers to sustainably gain sufficient income to solve their income-driven challenges if they attempt …

KOA’S ECONOMIC OPERATING MODEL IN GHANA Read More »

fertilizer bags

CÔTE D’IVOIRE AND GHANA EXPECT LOWER YIELDS AS FERTILISER BECOMES UNAFFORDABLE

Cocoa farmers in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire are likely to suffer poor yields as they cannot afford the cost of fertilizer, reports Reuters. The price has doubled and, in some cases, tripled from a year ago, farmers lamented. Nitrogen-based fertilizer such as nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK) costs between 36,000 and 38,000 CFA francs ($57-$60) for a 50kg …

CÔTE D’IVOIRE AND GHANA EXPECT LOWER YIELDS AS FERTILISER BECOMES UNAFFORDABLE Read More »

en_GBEnglish