Haiti's Cocoa Industry: An Example of Successful South-South Exchange and North-South Partnership

The author, an agroeconomist with Agronomes et Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (AVSF), says Haiti's cocoa orchard is mainly Criollo and Trinitario, varieties prized for fine chocolate, but the crop was long sold as ordinary unfermented cocoa. National production is around 7,500 tonnes a year and involves more than 20,000 small farming families. In 2011 cocoa made up 28% of agricultural exports, worth about USD 7 million, and it provides more than 60% of cocoa growers' income.

In December 2008 AVSF took members of the northern cocoa cooperative federation FECCANO on an exchange visit to the Peruvian network CEPICAFE, which later sent a technician to Haiti for a month to train about thirty people. In 2009 FECCANO produced 25 tonnes of fermented cocoa, the first fermentation by cooperatives in the history of Haitian cocoa, and the French cooperative company Ethiquable bought the first lot at USD 3,200 a tonne compared with USD 2,200 on the world market. FECCANO's fermentation capacity was estimated at about 200 tonnes a year three years later, and Valrhona signed a contract for 50 tonnes a year. The author draws two lessons: South-South exchanges should be intensified in agricultural support programs, and close commercial relations with Northern buyers can support family farming in the South.