Cacao , Theobroma cacao

Cacao tree was cultivated since 1500 BC by Olmecs. It was used both as food and as currency--perhaps  the first money in the world that wasn't walking on its own. Some people were even faking cacao beans-- drilling a hole in it and filling it with sand/clay. Cacao has a market that was  growing steadily in the last 100 years by 2-2.5-2.8%.
4 223 603 tons were produced in 2009, with Cote' d'Ivoire as a  world's leader with 1 223 200 tons  of cacao beans produced.
56.7 kg of cacao beans produced in Cote'd'Ivoire per capita, which is a record  (that allows the entire country to function and attract local immigrants). Some cacao disease is crippling the crop over there, in 2008   per capita  production was close to 70 kg.  6.2% of its territory is used for cacao trees (56.3% of their permanent crops land), and last year the number was almost 7.2%.  I cant wait to know  what  is the total for 2010, there is a huge trading opportunity. Your cacao "share" to consume  was 620 grams in 2009. About half of that will be cacao butter.
In 2009,  8 542 327 hectares were under cacao production.  That is over 5.51% of total permanent crop land usage in the world. Land usage increased since 1961 by 94%.  Thats a territory slightly smaller than Azerbaijan or slightly bigger than Idaho.  Think about all  those species that went extinct in the cleared rain forests for all this chocolate. About 200 000 child slaves are working on cacao plantations in Cote'd'Ivoire and  close to 100 000 on plantations in Ghana.

Cacao beans are nutritionally very dense foods and contain 643 calories per 100 g.  At 2000 calories a day, crop of 2009 could feed  37.2 million people, or an entire population of Poland, or California. There is enough protein for  24.76 million people.

As of today, the price of cacao is 3038.08 per tonne. Price of the world crop is around  $12.8 billion.
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Major producers of cacao beans , 2009  (2008)
1. Cote'd Ivoire   1 223 200
2. Indonesia           800 000
3. Ghana                700 000 (2008)
4. Nigeria              500 000 (2008)
5. Brazil                 225 000
6.Cameroon          210 000
7. Ecuador            120 500
8. Togo                  80 000 (2008)
9.Papua-NG          48 800 (2008)
10.Colombia          49 348
11.Dominican rep   42 154 (2008)
12. Peru                 36 124
13  Mexico            27 548 (2008)
14.Malaysia            18 152
15 Uganda              15 000
My usual sources are FAO.org, USDA.gov, CIA.gov, alibaba.com and many others.

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