Other countries produce chocolate with cocoa exported by Nicaragua.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Business operators are complaining about a lack of incentives for the production of chocolate, while there is institutional support for export of raw cocoa, without added value.
Elnuevodiario.com.ni reports that the president of the Momotombo Chocolate Factory, Carlos José Mann notes that "Nicaragua has few incentives to export chocolate and more promotion is given to the sale of cocoa as a raw material for other countries to produce chocolate. "
Momotombo Factory is one of the two small local companies engaged in this activity, reporting exports of 1.5 tons per year, exported via air in small consignments.
Milton Fernandez, general manager of El Castillo del Cacao, the other of the two small companies, says that "conditions should be created in this country and a lot of financial investment is required to increase chocolate exports."
The cacao producers union is planning to produce this year close to 1,500 tons of cocoa, 25% more than the production recorded at the close of 2017.
Last year the export value went down 4%, due to unfavorable conditions in international prices, but the export volume grew by 34%, according to data from the Association of Producers and Exporters of Nicaragua (Apen).Guillermo Jacoby, president of the Apen, explained to Elnuevodiario.com.ni: "...'Wewent from 4.2 million kilos to 5.5 million kilos last year'."
This year Ecuador could surpass Brazil as the largest producer of cocoa in America, with an expected increase of 9% in production, estimated at 240 thousand tons.
Like other producers of the grain, Ecuador is taking advantage of the surge in global demand for chocolate, devoting more resources to the cocoa industry in the country.
Costa Rican cacao is the finest in the world, but the country lacks the technology to process it, and the chocolate consumed is mostly imported.
According to an article in Elfinancierocr.com, "Two projects developed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) and the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE by its initials in Spanish) have focused since 2007 on increasing the quantity and quality of crops" This has allowed a rise in cultivation and production of cocoa, which after the attack of a pest in the 80s, was practically nil.