By the Caribbean Journal staff

Jamaica is intensifying efforts to regain its prominence in the cocoa market, with an EU- and USAID-backed plan to rehabilitate approximately 2,000 acres of production by the end of the 2011-2012 crop, and increase production by 400 tonnes.

“The foundation of any industry has to be the expansion of primary production, to guarantee the kind of throughput required for efficient and profitable value-added activity,” said Agriculture Minister JC Hutchinson.

A divestment of the commercial aspects of Jamaica’s Cocoa Industry Board is also underway, according to Jamaican Minister of Commerce Dr Christopher Tufton.

It’s part of a plan the minister called essential for the industry.

“Cocoa, like coffee, is a pervasive ingredient in the economy, food chain and lifestyle of western countries, and is moving eastwards,” Tufton said. “In recent years, we have also witnessed the rapid growth in demand for these food products in eastern countries, such as China and India.”

Tufton was speaking at the second annual Caribbean Fine Cocoa Conference and Chocolate Expo at the Ritz-Carlton in Montego Bay.

“The world market for cocoa beans is approximately 3.5 million metric tonnes valued at approximately $10.5 billion,” he said. “Fine and flavored cocoa, which commands a premium price of more than 25 percent over the price of bulk cocoa beans, is 5 to 8 percent of this market in metric tonnes,” he said.

There are approximately 6,000 cocoa farmers at present in Jamaica, Tufton said, compared to the 1960s and 1970s, when there were nearly 11,000 in the country.

“I urge the Cocoa Industry Board to partner with existing research facilities to identify new products, build the business profile and sell these to investors,” he said.