Cocoa: Extraction

Why a new cocoa tree takes seven years to pay

Cocoa trees grow in a narrow belt near the equator and need warmth, humidity and shade. Geman notes that new trees take around seven years to mature and fruit, so supply responds slowly. Pods are cut by hand, in a main crop and a smaller mid-crop each year. Farmers ferment the beans in heaps for several days and dry them in the sun, which sets the flavour. Grinders roast and grind the nibs into liquor, then press out cocoa butter and powder. Ageing trees and swollen-shoot virus weaken West African yields.

Cocoa is a tree crop grown under or near shade in a belt 10 degrees either side of the equator. New trees take about seven years to bear fully (Geman), so supply cannot respond fast. Three farming systems dominate: West African smallholdings with low yields and state-set prices, more intensive Latin American farms built on high-yield clones, and Southeast Asian smallholdings. After drying, beans enter one industrial route: roasting and grinding into liquor, then pressing into butter and powder, mostly by three global grinders. The farm is the bottleneck, because yields of 400-600 kg/ha leave little margin for fertiliser or replanting.

Methods compared

How each method works

Families farm a few hectares of ageing trees with little fertiliser. Beans are fermented in heaps, sun-dried and sold to licensed buyers at a farmgate price fixed by the state in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. Low prices and swollen-shoot virus have held back replanting.

Cheap land and labour and a deep logistics base, but low yields, old trees, disease and policy-driven pricing that encourages smuggling.

Growers plant dense blocks of clonal varieties such as CCN-51, use fertiliser, irrigation and pruning, and harvest more often. Ecuador has grown fastest of the large producers and also sells fine-flavour Nacional beans at a premium.

Yields several times the West African average and fast response to prices, but CCN-51 flavour is less prized and estates need capital.

Cocoa is often grown as an intercrop under coconut or arecanut. Indonesia's Sulawesi farms expanded in the 1990s but output has fallen as trees aged. India's crop is mostly intercropped in Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

Intercropping spreads risk for farmers, but yields are low and beans are often poorly fermented.

Grinders clean, roast and winnow beans into nibs, grind nibs into liquor, then press liquor into butter and cake. Cake is milled into natural or alkalised powder. Industrial chocolate makers buy liquor and butter or grind their own beans.

Scale economies favour a few global grinders; producing countries have added capacity with export-tax breaks but most chocolate is still made near consumers.

Who does it: global

Who does it: India

India grew 30,388 t of beans on 111,036 ha in 2024 (FAOSTAT), with Andhra Pradesh about 40% and Kerala about 36%. Demand is over 180,000 t bean-equivalent, so home supply covers under 20%; grinding capacity is about 99,500 t a year at about 60% use (Grant Thornton Bharat). India still exported 45,489 t of cocoa products worth Rs 2,512 crore in FY2025, up from 36,185 t.