Dominican farmers excited over cocoa exports

Dominican cocoa farmers are expressing great relief and excitement over the prospect of being able to export cocoa once again.

On Monday November 12th, 2007, the Dominica Export Import Agency (DEXIA) will be purchasing wet cocoa beans from farmers from the West Coast villages stretching from Layou to Dublanc. The buying depot will be located at the Batalie Beach junction. Farmers from the other agricultural districts across the island will be afforded a similar opportunity to sell their wet beans in the ensuing weeks.

In 2006, DEXIA signed a contract and Memorandum of Understanding with J.H.B. International in which the Belgium based company gave a commitment to purchase all the cocoa beans Dominica can produce. During a subsequent familiarization visit, the Director of the company, A.J Hachamoff told a group of farmers his goal was “to help Dominica regain its position on the international cocoa and chocolate market.”

Dominica has not undertaken any commercial shipments of cocoa for some time now. However, DEXIA in partnership with J.H.B. International and the Division of Agriculture has been spearheading efforts to revive the crop and restore the fortunes of cocoa farmers. To this end a number of training exercises with farmers, processors and extension staff, crop rehabilitation exercises, and the refurbishment of the Batalie cocoa processing facility have been undertaken.

The Agency is looking to ship a 20-foot container load of dried cocoa beans to Belgium in March 2008. Notwithstanding the 30% crop-loss sustained during the passage of Hurricane Dean, officials at DEXIA say they are confident given the farmers’ spirited response to this opportunity that Dominica is well on its way to meeting its target and re-entering the international cocoa market.

Feedback from the market indicates that there is a very strong interest in and demand for the highly flavoured Dominica cocoa.