He International Cocoa Price It has multiplied by three since 2020, passing about five thousand dollars the ton to exceed 15 and 20 thousand dollars in recent years. This historical rebound has energized the cocoa sector in the Dominican Republic, where national production ranges between 70 and 80 thousand metric tons per year and continues to expand.
This was stated Rosterman Ramírezdirector of the Department of Cocoa of the Ministry of Agriculture, who stressed that the country has 171,850 hectares planted in 21 provinces, with the Northeast (Duarte, María Trinidad Sánchez and Sánchez Ramírez) as the main producing area, responsible for 60% of the national cocoa.
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He indicated that in the last two years, the attractiveness of prices has motivated the planting of new areas and the incorporation of between three and four thousand additional producers to the 42 thousand families that already cultivated the grain.
Ramírez said that the true challenge of the sector is to industrialize the grain and export chocolate instead of raw material, which would generate greater income, jobs and competitiveness for the country.
He said that the benefit for the country is limited when cocoa comes to the gross market. “The elaborated product has about 40% more value than the raw material, but at present only three large industries process chocolate in national territory. More resources and greater industrial capacity are needed to make that leap,” he said.
He explained that most of the exports of Dominican cocoa are destined to Europe, the United States and Japanmarkets that demand grain as input for their own chocolate industry.
