Multinational companies are looking at India to boost cocoa production to meet the rising demand. The inauguration of the largest cocoa processing centre in the Asia-Pacific by Cadbury’s maker Mondelez on Monday is a milestone in India’s 50-year journey with the bean.
Half a century after Mondelez started its Cocoa Life project in the country, India produces only half of the domestic requirement. The company still has to import two-thirds of its requirements in the country from African and Southeast Asian countries.
The project, which was aimed at popularising cocoa cultivation in the Asia-Pacific, started in India in 1964 when the company started a centre in Wayanad. More than a lakh farmers have switched to cocoa in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu since then.
Farmers in the south Indian states cultivate cocoa as an alternative crop along with coconut, areca and oil palm. The increasing price for cocoa in the international market is further boosting cocoa cultivation in India.
Most of the producers are mid-scale farmers but their consumers are a handful of global giants. Mondelez has a definite lead in the production of chocolate.
India needs about 30,000 tons of cocoa per year, according to data available with the central government. But the country produces less than half of the requirement. Mondelez gets only a third of its requirements for India from domestic production.
Mondelez runs 11 nurseries to supply cocoa saplings for about 5,000 farmers. The company’s initiative also provides training to the farmers. The company is also assisting research into the crop in association with the Kerala Agricultural University. Other companies are also providing a boost to cocoa cultivation but the production is far from optimum levels.
Globally, almost 30 per cent to 40 per cent of production is lost to blight and pesticides. Almost 35 per cent of the trees are more than 35 years old, further affecting yield.
Faced with rising demand and dwindling production, multinational companies are trying to boost production in India by forming farmers’ communities.