Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, Ravi Ratiram, said the government is committed to revitalising the cocoa industry.
Addressing the opening ceremony of the annual Research and Development Symposium hosted by the UWI Cocoa Research Centre, he said the government will continue to invest resources into the local cocoa industry.
“Committed to scaling up the propagation and distribution of disease-resistant and high-yielding planting material, enhancing farmer training in integrated pest and disease management, investing in fermentaries and the value-added processing, strengthening traceability and quality assurance systems, promoting the adoption of climate-smart practices across the cocoa value chain.”
The Minister added that the government is working closely with international bodies to ensure that locally produced cocoa meets emerging trade requirements such as cadmium limits and sustainable sourcing protocols.
“The proposed Cocoa Investment Fund aims to catalyse renewed investment in the sector while providing incentives to young farmers and entrepreneurs. We have to encourage our younger ones to get involved in this potential gold mine that exists here in Trinidad and Tobago with our cocoa industry.”
Meanwhile, Director at the Cocoa Research Centre, Professor Pathmanathan Umaharan, highlighted the state of the local cocoa industry.
“Innovations are needed to increase productivity of cocoa farms to make them into economically viable units. At present, as you know, the cocoa farms are at very low productivity levels— about 150 to 200 kilogrammes per hectare, compared to international standards, which are over 3,000 US, 3,000 kilogrammes per hectare. So we are really not even one tenth of what we should be.”
The theme of the annual symposium is ‘Building Sustainability and Resilience in the Cocoa Value Chain.’