Our Action Plan
Producing Higher Quality Cocoa Trees
A 3-year-old higher quality cocoa tree maturing in an Ecuadorian R & D centre before being distributed to farmers by their local cooperative
The result of our expertise and investment is that we’re able to produce large quantities of first-class cocoa plants that are stronger, less vulnerable to disease and potentially yield twice or even more than average trees in cocoa farms today, once they reach full productivity around four or five years after planting. This is achieved with the help of an accelerated propagation process. There is no genetic modification involved. The process starts in our R&D Centre in Tours, France with cocoa tree flower buds that finish up as plantlets in our centre in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, or in Ecuador. Once they’ve matured in local nurseries, the trees are ready to be planted in the farmers’ fields.
Making a difference
Our elite tree initiative is a major highlight of The Cocoa Plan. It’s already making a lasting positive difference by supplying best quality young trees to farmers, with the potential to deliver 20 years’ high yield and top quality cocoa beans. This year we’ll ship thousands of small plantlets from Tours. In addition, as a result of our free technical assistance, Tours’ technology is now being used in other cocoa producing countries.
We will be dramatically increasing the quantity of cocoa trees produced for farmers in Côte d’Ivoire by investing in new facilities in Abidjan to propagate a million trees each year from 2012. It will employ local Ivorian people, and have close links with the national plant institute CNRA (Centre National Ivoirien de Recherche Agronomique).
Plant Propagation
A cocoa tree flower before it grows into a cocoa pod
As with other plants, there are basically three traditional ways to propagate
new cocoa plants. You can use seed, produce rooted cuttings or use
grafting. But now it’s also possible to use accelerated propagation.
Seeds
Seeds are good in two respects. They are easy to obtain and produce a tree with a strong, long tap root that helps the tree to survive in periods of drought. They also create trees with a good branch structure or architecture, based on a strong main trunk and what is called a jorquette – the canopy of branches shaped like an umbrella.
But they have one disadvantage: they are inconsistent. In effect only 10% to 20% of the trees on average will perform at a good or high level.
Cuttings
Cuttings, commonly used for plants such as geraniums, do produce cocoa trees that are consistent and uniform, but they usually have no tap root nor a good tree structure because they are normally derived from branches with a sideways growth.
Grafting
Grafting, commonly used to propagate roses, is a popular technique to make new cocoa plants, but it also results in some inconsistency and produces a weaker tree structure, tending towards bushiness, making access and harvesting more difficult.
Accelerated propagation supersedes these three techniques by providing both strong tap roots and an excellent structure whilst maintaining uniformity of the plant. As a result, this process significantly enhances the quality and yield of the cocoa plant.
