Challenges & Opportunities

There are several challenges faced by Ecuador’s smallholder cocoa farmers of which two are the most serious. Frosty pod rot (Moniliopthora roreri) is a fungus that attacks cocoa pods and is pervasive in all the principal cocoa growing areas in Ecuador. Estimates of production losses due to frosty pod rot for cocoa farmers are between 40 and 80 percent. The frosty pod rot or monilia fungus is spread by the wind that carries spores from infected pods to healthy pods. Another disease that affects cocoa production is witches broom (Crinipellis perniciosa) which is also a fungus that is propagated by the wind carrying its spores to infect healthy trees. Cocoa production losses to witches’ broom are also quite high.

Another great challenge for Ecuador’s cocoa farmers is their tree height and age. Smallholder farmers have old cocoa groves with trees frequently between 6 to 10 meters high (18 to 30 feet). Trees this tall make it very difficult to control diseases, harvest and drain needed soil nutrients to support unproductive parts of the tree. The farmers are being taught to prune their trees down to 2.5 to 3 meters (7.5 to 9 feet) to facilitate tree management and increase productivity.

Since Ecuador’s cocoa farmers have such low on-farm productivity, their potential for increasing their yield is high when applying the cultural methods taught in the SUCCESS Alliance farmer field schools. The methods taught are reinforced to farmers by using a learning-by-doing approach so that farmers have the opportunity to practice improved crop husbandry themselves. The techniques are straightforward and can be easily applied to their own cocoa groves. The technology involved is easily learned by farmers and should lead to higher yield and better quality due to improved tree management, disease control and post-harvest practices.

The cocoa marketing chain also offers opportunities given that many farmers produce small amounts of cocoa and sell individually to small town intermediaries. The intermediaries also represent a chain that may involve 3 or 4 intermediaries before the cocoa is presented to the exporters. Frequently the intermediaries mix cocoa of different qualities before selling to the next level and this degrades the overall quality of the cocoa that is exported. When farmers agree to work together and sell their cocoa in volume, they are able to sell farther up the cocoa marketing chain and realize a higher percentage of the selling price. The SUCCESS Alliance project is working with farmer groups and cocoa exporters to improve this link which leads to higher prices for farmers and higher quality cocoa for exporters.

Ecuador also offers unique opportunities to farmers as the world’s largest producer of fine flavored cocoa. Demand for Ecuador’s Arriba flavored cocoa is strong and includes markets in South, Central and North America as well as Europe and Japan. There are several specialty markets available to Ecuador’s cocoa farmers such as organic, fair trade, and Rainforest Alliance and all offer a premium price. However, farmers must be organized to take advantage of this opportunity. Therefore, the project is seeking to educate existing associations about such opportunities so they make take advantage of them.

Lastly, Ecuador is also home to one of the most productive varieties of cocoa in the world, CCN51. This cocoa, developed by Ecuador’s own Homero Castro, is famous for its high productivity, pod and bean size and high butter content. Farmers interested in growing this variety must take care to grow and market it separately from the traditional Nacional variety since the different characteristics that make each cocoa attractive are lost if the two varieties are mixed together.