Cocoa production from new crop area in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu will help compensate rain-related damages to the existing crop, officials at the Kochi-based Directorate of Cashew and Cocoa Development (DACCD) said. Production is likely to remain same or fall marginally from 12,900 tonne produced in 2009-10, Venkatesh Hubballi, director of DACCD told FE.
?Heavy rains in the croping area has interrupted flowering and pollination. The setting is not very encouraging and we fear yield loss from most areas,? Hubballi added.
Currently, cocoa has been planted in 46,000 hectare in India of which 16,000 hectares is in Andhra Pradesh followed by Kerala with 11,000 ha. Hubballi expects the crop to come down marginally or stay at last year?s level because of drop in yield in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
?More than 2,000 hectares in these two states will be harvested in the new crop year. The yield may be low but a great help in the present circumstances,? he said.
Indian imports more than half of its requirement of cocoa every year with demand for cocoa increasing at a healthy rate of 8% per annum. The Indian chocolate market is worth Rs 15 billion and offers great potential for Western chocolate manufacturers as the market is still in its early stages.
India imported 19,000 tonne of cocoa products, which include beans, paste butter and chocolate preparations, during 2007-08 fiscal.
Indian farmers had a disappointing start with cocoa in the 80s. However, this time cocoa is being promoted more as an inter-crop to coconut and arecanut to spread the risk.
According DACCD sources, Indian cocoa production is likely to cross 17,000 tonne in five years from the present 12,000 tonne. DACCD has plans to bring another 75,000 hectare under cocoa cultivation in the next five years.
?Perception on cocoa farming has entirely changed in the past few years. Cocoa is now being promoted as inter-crop unlike earlier when it was sold as a mono-crop,? Venkatesh said. This reduces the risk for farmers even in times of falling prices, he added.
The low productivity of cocoa also adds to the advantage of using it as an inter-crop. Cocoa production is likely to get a boost with the government doubling the subsidy provided for re-planting.