Cocoa, a leading crop bound to thrive

Among the many peculiarities of beautiful Baracoa, the first town founded by the Spanish conquistadors in Cuba, is its status as the country's main source of export items as valuable to the economy of the province of Guantanamo as coconut and cocoa bean.

Just like the coconut tree, the cultivation of cocoa beans is means of support to and a part of the culture and identity of many families in this region of eastern Cuba, where generations on end have tended to the production and making of chocolate.

From Baracoa comes 85% of all Cuban cocoa, a task currently in the hands of some 1,243 farmers, who in 2014 and 2015 managed to deliver an all-time high 1,564 tons of dry cocoa, a deed eventually thwarted by the devastating Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

A farming program was then re-launched to restore the plantations and salvage production for the benefit of cocoa growers and people in general, a task almost entirely assumed by the Baracoa Agroforestry and Cocoa Company (EACB), the province’s second exporter approved by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment. Likewise, the scarcity of fertilizers and working tools and the insufficient agro-technical and agricultural extension work led to a drop in yields.

The current strategy for cocoa production until 2030 combines scientific and innovation projects that include the training of growers, the making of drying sheds and a classification line, and the use of more resistant and efficient nurseries.

Data presented at the meeting Alimentos con más ciencia (Food with more science), led by the provincial government, indicate that it is possible to reach the 4,000 ton mark.

Undoubtedly, there is great prospect of growth in this field, expected to lead up to higher levels of cultivation, development and production of cocoa and its derivatives in Cuba’s first town and to economic improvement in the province of Guantánamo.