Cocoa And Chocolate
The Tree, The Bean The Beverage

_____________ 90 ____________ ______________ THE COCOA AND CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY history has the price of cacao ever remained constant. This was during 1918 when the Food Controller fixed the price of the best qualities of the different varieties of raw cacao. The list below gives one an excellent general idea of the way cacaos are graded— FIXED PRICE OF CACAO April, 1918, to May, 1919 British West Africa (Accra) . . 65s. per cwt. Bahia Cameroons .... San Thomé ____________________..... 85s. „ ,, Congo ____________________.... j Grenada Trinidad . . . . i Demerara . . . • [_ __ Guayaquil f 9tjs' ” ” Surinam ____________________.... J Ceylon ____________________.... j Java 100s. „ ,, Samoa On page 91 will be found a diagram showing the variation in price of four important varieties of cacao, one from each of the above sections, during the years 1913 to 1922. The most notable feature is the manner in which prices rose in 1919 like a rocket, when the Government control was taken off, and then feil like the stick in 1920. This fall in prices was a great loss to all holders of stock, and in one or two instances the losses were so great as to cause disaster. Valuing Cacao. As far as country of origin is con-cerned, there is, to the uninitiated, something freakish in the great variation in price paid for beans which look so similar, and it is not possible, with the more expensive kinds, even for the expert entirely to account for it. However, apart from the effect of freight on price, one can call attention to certain qualities which