Cocoa pods are seen at a cocoa farm Ivory Coast . The planned plantation in Peru is designed to tap into growing global demand for chocolate . PHOTO : REUTERS both regions . Across the commodities , cocoa prices have risen against the tide . The Goldman Sachs Commodities Index has fallen nearly 30 % over the past 12 months , as an oversupply of commodities from copper to sugar has kept prices at multiyear lows .
But the London-traded cocoa futures market has risen more than 16 % over the same period on the back of what traders attribute to worries about dry weather in West Africa and speculators piling into a bull market . Prices are at levels not seen since March 2011 , when Ivory Coast was embroiled in a violent political conflict and imposed a cocoa export ban .
The former banker isn ’ t alone in attracting corporate funds to cocoa production , which is still dominated by independent smallholder farmers . Belgium-based KKO International said it would plant cocoa on 3,000 hectares in Ivory Coast by 2017 . The company listed in Brussels and Paris in October .
London-listed Agriterra said it plans to plant 4,000 ha by 2017 at another project and produce 8,000 metric tons of cocoa a year by 2020 or 2021 .
To fund his scheme , Mr . Melka said he has raised more than $ 27 million over the past three years , starting with
$ 10 million from his own funds and other investors , mainly family offices and private individuals . A listing on the London Stock Exchange in December last year raised a further $ 10 million , with the remainder coming from convertible debt and equity .
United Cacao ’ s production , even at maturity , will be only a fraction of global supply , Mr . Melka said .
When the 6,500 hectares is in production , half of which will be the corporate plantation with the remainder coming from smallholder farmers , the company will produce an estimated 10,000 tons of cocoa , he said .
The cocoa tree is native to the densely forested foothills of the Andes Mountains in Columbia and Venezuela . It was propagated by the Aztec empire stretching across Central America for hundreds of years before the Spanish arrived in those parts .
The tree was brought to Africa , along with maize and tobacco , by the Portuguese over five hundred years ago . It thrives in the warmer latitudes between 15 ° degrees North and South of the equator .
As oil palms and rubber vines occur
32 FARMERS GAZETTE November 2015