Cocoa And Chocolate
The Tree, The Bean The Beverage

CHAPTER VII COLLECTION, TRANSPORT, AND MARKETING OF CACAO Bagging. The planter weighs his cacao into good strong jute bags. This is now the universal method of packing : the “ Socunusco ” cacao from Guatemala used to be exported in buffalo-hide bags and cacao from Madagascar in cow-hide packages stitched with leather thongs, but these belong to the picturesque past. A suitable sack to hold ljcwts. should be made of sufficiently stout material to weigh at least 3 Ibs., as it has to bear rough handling. The bags are carefully sewn up and marked in a characteristic way which is generally indicative of the estate on which the cacao was grown. One frequently sees in cacao statistics the amounts indicated as so many bags. This cannot signify a definite quantity unless the country of origin is known, as, unfortunately, the recognised weight varies from country to country. The following examples illustrate this— APPROXIMATE WEIGHT OF BAGS OF CACAO Country of Origin. Trinidad Grenada Jamaica San Domingo Guayaquil . Surinam San Thomé . Gold Coast . Brazil Venezuela . Ceylon Net Weight of Cacao in Bag. Ibs. 196 196 196 196 175 168 140 140 140 112 112 83