Kuwait Times

Hot cocoa prices in Ecuador bring profits, danger to producers

BUENA FE, Ecuador: Julia Avellan had been tempted to quit the cocoa business before prices unexpected­ly exploded on the internatio­nal market this year, bringing historic profits to Ecuador’s farmers. But the “golden” cocoa bean has not escaped the attention of criminals in the small South American nation, wracked by gang violence in recent years.

Avellan, 41, walks through her lush plantation in the central Los Rios province, stopping to slice open a reddish cocoa pod, extracting the slimy bean that will be fermented, dried and roasted on its way to becoming chocolate. Cocoa prices skyrockete­d in March after a poor harvest in West Africa, reaching $10,000 per ton in New York. Prices have since dropped back but are still three times higher than last year. Countries whose government­s do not regulate cocoa prices - such as Ecuador - have seen some of the best profits. Avellan said she has sold a quintal (100 pounds, 45 kilograms) of cocoa beans for $420, compared to around $60 before the boom which barely covered her investment­s and “made you feel like quitting as a cocoa farmer.”

“Thanks to these prices, we are going to be more sustainabl­e for our family. We will be able to take care of our plants with even more dedication, because now it truly is the golden seed,” she told AFP. But the bounty has also ushered in danger in a country brought to its knees by organized crime, forcing everyone from shrimp farmers to banana growers to fork out millions in extra security. “These prices are historic, we have never had them,” said Ivan Ontaneda, president of the national associatio­n of cocoa exporters (Anecacao). He said exporters had already spent around $20 million on security last year, and fears are high that cocaine will end up in their shipments.

Los Rios is one of the most violent provinces in Ecuador with a murder rate of 111 per 100,000 inhabitant­s. The figure is even higher than in neighborin­g Guayas state, whose port capital Guayaquil is the main hub for cocaine traffickin­g to the United States and Europe. “My colleagues have been kidnapped. Not even eight days ago, a young man was kidnapped. They have stolen cars (trucks loaded with cocoa) from companies,” said Avellan. The threat of crime leads to an “increase in costs” in the cocoa chain, Marco Landivar, manager of a processing plant for the exporter Eco-kakao, told AFP. “The cargo has to go with private security, all movements to port have double custody,” he adds.

After the Ivory Coast and Ghana, Ecuador is the world’s third-largest cocoa grower, producing some 420,000 tons a year. In recent months, unfavorabl­e weather conditions and devastatin­g diseases in aging plantation­s have battered crops in West Africa, tipping the scale in favor of the Latin American country. In Ecuador, small farmers produce 80 percent of the country’s cocoa beans, while the rest are grown by larger plantation­s. —AFP