World Production

Top Cocoa Producers in 2004
(million metric tons)
Côte d’Ivoire	1.33
Ghana	0.74
Indonesia	0.43
Nigeria	0.37
Brazil	0.17
Cambodia	0.13
Ecuador	0.09
World Total	3.6

About 3,000,000 tonnes of cocoa is grown each year. The global production was

1,556,484 t in 1974,

1,810,611 t in 1984,

2,672,173 t in 1994,

3,607,052 t in 2004 (record).

This is an increase of 131.7% in 30 years.

There are three main varieties of the Theobroma cacao: Forastero, Criollo, and Trinitario. The first comprises 95% of the world production of cacao, and is the most widely used. Overall, the highest quality of cacao comes from the Criollo variety and is considered a delicacy; however, Criollo is harder to produce, hence very few countries produce it, with the majority of production coming from Venezuela (Chuao and Porcelana). The Trinitario is a mix between Criollo and Forastero.

The Netherlands is the leading cocoa processing country, followed by the U.S..

Cocoa and its products (including chocolate) are used world-wide. Belgium had the highest per-capita consumption at 5.5 kg in 1995/96, 10 times the world average.

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