Cocoa And Chocolate
The Tree, The Bean The Beverage

82 THE COCOA AND CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY merchants have played a valuable part in the past in the development of this industry and are a determining factor in its standing in the future. It is to be feared that not many European and American buyers appreciate their responsibilities in this direction. However, as Sir Hugh Clifford said in 1919, “ One or two firms it is true, of which Messrs. Cadbury Bros, and Messrs. Pickering & Berthoud are the principal examples, have consistently refused to buy cacao which is not of approved quality, and the adoption of this policy has been productive of good results.” The natural flow of economic conditions is generally preferable to Government intervention, but, if the majority of the buyers do not adopt the above principles, it is unlikely that the quality of the cacao will auto-matically improve, and it may be found advisable, as a representative committee has recommended, for the Government to inspect the cacao at the port of shipment. For a delightful chat about the industry on the Gold Coast one should read Miss E. A. Browne’s book on Cocoa. Those who require more complete scientific information will find all they desire in the Reports of the Department of Agriculture and the authoritative Enquiry into the Gold Coast Cocoa Industry, 1918-1919, by Mr. W. S. D. Tudhope. Its problems are felicitously discussed in Mr. E. J. Organ’s paper on The Gold Coast Cocoa Indzistry and its Recent Developments, which was read at the International Tropical Exhibition, 1921.