By Wendy Anders

Costa Rica’s Ministry of Agriculture decided to make July 4th National Cocoa Day.

The Día Nacional de Cacao was inaugurated this year to increase attention and channel support to this recovering agricultural sector that was decimated in the early 1980s by a rapidly spreading fungus called Moniliophthora roreri.

In response to the destructive pod-rot fungus that spread to Costa Rica from Ecuador and Colombia in the late 1970s, the Tropical Agriculture Research and Education Center (CATIE) in Turrialba, Cartago has worked arduously to develop six disease- and drought-resistant cacao varieties. CATIE also provides technical assistance to cacao growers on how to interplant the varieties.

Costa Rica currently produces about 600 tons of cacao per year from these new resistant tree strains, which is well below pre-fungus production.

The Cabecar are the most active of the indigenous groups who grow cacao in the country. Their Association of Small Producers of Talamanca (APPTA in Spanish) became Fair Trade certified in 1997, and currently exports to both Europe and the United States. According to the Fair Trade website, “In 2000, when the international price for cocoa was very low, the Fair Trade price enabled the cooperative to maintain production and support its members.”

For Brenes, the National Cacao Day legislation allowed for the establishment of a Inter-Institutional Cacao Commission which is an important step toward increasing production, processing and marketing of cacao and chocolate products.

“Cacao production is in the hands of small and medium growers, and is important economically and also spiritually to the Bribri, Cabecar and Maleku indigenous communities. An action plan to make visible the value of cacao for the country is urgently needed, as well as support for growers so they can improve their production, guarantee a quality product, and maximize their potential as exporters,” said Oscar Brenes, Ministry of Agriculture’s National Cacao Program manager.

The Ministry of Agriculture recently carried out a $140,000 start-up loan program to support 35 cacao growers in Matina, Limón, said Brenes in a phone interview.

CATIE has a close working relationship with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), who sent analyst Jocelyn Brown to Costa Rica from June 18-21 to learn more about CATIE’s work and discuss the possibility of funding an international cacao research and education center at their site.

Costa Rica’s largest cacao farm, a 120-hectare Dutch-owned extension in Bijagua in northern Costa Rica was fortunately unaffected by the region’s recent earthquakes. The series of quakes registering between 4.3 and 5.3 magnitude struck Bijagua, Upala near the Nicaraguan border around 8:00pm on July 2. The Upala Municipal Emergency Committee reported damage to roads and eight houses, and that 20 – 25 people had to seek help and lodging from family members.