A sweet start for cocoa

For a long time, fine chocolates and the cultivation of cacao had not made major inroads in India’s markets and farms. Though the crop is usually grown in tropical climates, chocolate-making is perceived to be a Western enterprise. However, Karnataka is slowly seeing new avenues for cocoa producers and cacao growers. Cocoa is the processed version of cacao.

Seventy-two-year-old Vishwanatha Rao has been cultivating cacao on his arecanut farm for about 25 years at Dakshina Kannada’s Kanthamangala. 

Rao puts forward a recent trend among cacao growers. “Nowadays, growers have started fermenting the beans before selling, which was a rarity earlier,” he says. 

Cacao flowers usually bloom in the November heat and are harvested in the monsoon. The fermentation, therefore, requires an artificial heater to prevent the pods from getting damp in the rain.  

“Farmers used to sell wet beans immediately after collecting then from the farm. However, the Covid-19 lockdown forced the farmers to begin fermenting the beans, so they could also dry them and sell at a better price,” Rao says. 

Early days  

In Karnataka, cacao is mostly grown as a companion crop integrated with irrigated arecanut or coconut gardens. The history of cacao cultivation as a serious agricultural activity is quite new — it probably dates back to the mid-1960s. 

Till the mid-1980s, the only buyer of cocoa in India was Cadbury and, to a small extent, Amul. The over-dependence of growers from Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh on Cadbury left them in a dilemma when the company withdrew from the Indian market citing a ‘global slump’ in the 1980s. 

In response to the farmers’ complaints of not having a market to sell their produce, the arecanut marketing cooperative society, CAMPCO (Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative Limited), set up a chocolate manufacturing unit in Dakshina Kannada’s Puttur in 1986. 

CAMPCO became the default pick for cacao growers after that. The person behind the cooperative society, Varanashi Subraya Bhat, began mobilising farmers in Karnataka and Kerala.

Growers say Bhat revolutionised cacao growing with the establishment of the manufacturing unit. 

Bhat’s son and agricultural scientist Varanashi Krishna Moorthy says, “We were the pioneers in cultivating cacao on a large scale, along with very few other farmers at the time. Most were selling their produce to agents, who then used to supply it to Cadbury.” 

A new hope 

Data from CAMPCO shows that the price of cocoa has seen a nearly three-fold increase in the past two years. In 2022, the price of dry cocoa was between Rs 150 and Rs 210 and the price of wet cocoa was Rs 45 to Rs 57. The current price of dry and wet cocoa ranges between Rs 500 to Rs 550 and Rs 110 to Rs 150, respectively. 

Krishna Moorthy attributes this increase to international cocoa market trends. He says there has been a decline in production in West African countries like Ghana, where cocoa is produced in large quantities. He cites catastrophic weather conditions as the reason for the decline in production in these countries. 

Unlike many other crops, the cacao wave’s crests and troughs in India were primarily dictated not by the unpredictability of market rates, but by the absence of buyers and periods of non-existent markets, which are now seeing diversification. 

A new avenue of value addition seems to be emerging: The production of speciality chocolates by small-scale chocolatiers. 

Nivedita Prasad and Uma Raju, founders of Chocolate Philosophy, note the potential for cocoa value addition in the country.

“There are about 25 to 30 chocolatiers in India who have taken up manufacturing single-origin chocolates seriously. There is a huge vacuum for it and it will grow tremendously in the next few years,” says Uma.

Nivedita adds that more people are open to exploring the options today than ever. At Chocolate Philosophy, Uma and Nivedita buy cocoa from various regions, including Kateel and Kodagu in Karnataka, Adimali in Kerala’s Idukki, and Pollachi in Tamil Nadu. They are also planning to buy cocoa from farmers in Guwahati. Cocoa grown in different regions differs in taste based on the crop it is interspersed with, they explain.

There are also many amateur chocolatiers across Dakshina Kannada who make chocolates from cocoa grown on their own farms or sourced from farmers across the state.

Puttur’s Bettampady-based techie couple Balasubrahmanya P S and Swathi Kallegundi never imagined they would own a chocolate brand till they experimented with making chocolate once during the lockdown. 

“After we made chocolate and shared it on Instagram, people got curious about the process and wanted to taste it,” says Balasubrahmanya. What started as a leisure activity soon grew into a bigger endeavour. They now make chocolates infused with jaggery, roasted almond, coffee and pepper.  

Agriculturist and writer Shree Padre says it was during the pandemic that private players started making chocolates on their own. 

The road ahead

Horticulture department data shows that there has not been a significant area expansion in cacao cultivation in the state. Rather, it has shrunk.

In 2014, the area under cacao cultivation was 4,241 hectares. In 2023, the area shrunk to 3,422 hectares. Interestingly, the highest area under cacao cultivation was recorded in 2021, at 6,244 hectares. 

As cacao is a secondary crop across Karnataka, Padre attributes the shrinking area of cacao cultivation to a false conception among farmers. “There is a myth among arecanut farmers that cacao eats up the manure added to areca, thus impacting the areca yield,” he says. 

Kadiregowda, Joint Director of Horticulture (Plantation Crops and Plant Protection), says that cacao produces natural biomass which acts as green manure for other integrated crops. The department has sent a proposal to the Union government to consider making a cluster development programme for cacao cultivation. “It will help with area expansion and marketing,” he adds. 

Cocoa beans stored at the Kadamba Marketing facility in Sirsi.

Cacao pods on the tree.