Cocoa And Chocolate
The Tree, The Bean The Beverage

COLLECTION, TRANSPORT, AND MARKETING 87 Gold Coast cacao. The principal shipping port for Brazil is Bahia, which exports nearly ten times the quantity shipped from the other leading port, Para. About 95 per cent of the cacao of Ecuador is exported from Guayaquil. Port-of-Spain is the chief port for Trinidad, Lagos for Nigeria, San Thomé for San Thomé, and Sanchez for the Dominican Republic; while Venezuela ships chiefly from La Guayra, Carupano and Puerto Cabello. Several manufacturers, Menier, Suchard, Cadbury, and others, have estates of their own, but these estates produce only a small part of their requirements. Manufacturers seldom deal direct with the planter, although in some cases they have their buying agendes on the spot. Planters either seil locally or ship direct to European brokers. Most of the buying in England is done on cost and freight contracts. In this case the weight of the bags is deducted by the seller and the buyer takes all other charges, including shrinkage up to 2 per cent. More rarely the cacao is sold on London or Liverpool landed terms, in which case the planter, in calculating his returns, has to subtract from the gross weight not only the tare, but also the amounts allowed f°r sampling and for loss in weight. He then has to deduct from the market value of the remainder, the Insurance, freight, dock and landing charges, and the agent’s Commission. Valorisation schemes have often been proposed in Connection with cacao, and in Ecuador in 1912 the Asociacion de Agricultores del Ecuador was formed in the interests of the planters and exporters, for the express purpose of storing and holding up cacao when prices were low. Such efforts tend to stabilise industry, t>ut the faet mentioned above, namely, that cacao deteri-Orates if stored in the tropics, is a serious objection