November 2011


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Cocoa training

The Cocoa Research Unit, UWI St. Augustine, hosted a workshop entitled Caribbean Fine/Flavour Cocoa Commercialisation CAR-RFO: "Train-the-Trainers Workshop for Farmer Field Schools (FFS)" from November 21-23, 2011, at the Institute for Critical Thinking.

The workshop was part of the Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE) funded project, “Caribbean Fine/Flavour Cocoa Industry Commercialisation: CAR-RFO”. Farmers and other trained personnel from seven participating countries in the region shared best practices from the various territories and agreed on a methodology for training cocoa farmers, via Farmer Field Schools in the participating countries.

Several Caribbean countries are involved in the production of fine and flavour cocoa that is traded in a niche market at premium prices of approximately twice the market price of bulk cocoa. Fine or flavour cocoa accounts for 5% of the total global cocoa production annually and is sought after by the manufacturers of dark chocolates and other highly priced speciality products. Grenada, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago are recognised by the International Cocoa and Coffee Organisation (ICCO) as producing 100% of “fine and flavour cocoa” while the Dominican Republic produces 40% of fine and flavour cocoa, but may be upgraded to 60 - 75% in the near future. Significant injection of financial and human resource investments by the private sector and policy support by the relevant Governments are required for the industry to reach its full potential.

The Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE) is an ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific)/European Union (EU) joint institution created to support the development of the private sector in ACP countries (Website: http://www.cde.int). The overall goal of this project is to address the challenges faced by fine/flavour cocoa producers in the Caribbean, particularly those of declining production and low productivity as well as food safety and other quality concerns. In addition, the project will promote the development of value-added products and agri-tourism associated with cocoa production in the region. The participating countries are Belize, the Commonwealth of Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The Cocoa Research Unit (CRU) was selected as the lead consultant for the initial step of the project “Communication, Mobilisation and Institutional Strengthening” involving the Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour Le Développement (CIRAD) and the seven stakeholder Caribbean countries.