2024-07-10 15:25:15
Julia Avellán thought about abandoning the family tradition of planting cocoa. But an unexpected boom due to high international prices made him change his mind, although the eyes of the organized crime have landed on the producers.
Wearing glasses and a cap and with pruning shears in hand, the 41-year-old woman walks around her farm full of lush cocoa trees in Good faithin the province of The Rivers in Ecuador.
In the middle of crop, Split one of the fruits in half until you remove the slimy seeds, which give off a sweet aroma.
These seeds have been quoted without restraint since 2023, to the point of breaking $10,000 per ton for the first time in March. NY.
This is particularly due to strong global demand and a significant reduction in supply from West Africa.
In Ecuador, Where the government does not regulate cocoa prices, profits are ever greater.
This year Hazelnut has come to sell a quintal (100 pounds) for 420 dollars. Before the boom “there were prices of 50 to 60 dollars that did not justify (the investment), made me want to stop being a cocoa farmer,” says the farmer.
Now, “thanks to those prices we are going to make our families more sustainable and we will have better conditions and take care of our plants with much more reason, because now (cocoa) is the golden seed,” celebrates the producer, who inherited the trade from her grandparents.
“These prices are historic, we have never had them before,” says Iván Ontaneda, president of the National Association of Cocoa Exporters of Ecuador. (Anecacao).
In Ecuador, small farmers produce a 80% of the total fruit that grows in 22 of the 24 provinces. The rest is done on medium and large plantations..
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2024-07-10 15:25:15