Dominican cacao has a well-earned reputation in the international market. In 2008, it was declared as Fino or Aroma. 40% of the national production can be sold as such, but if we do the work, we can bring that percentage to 70%.

However, the 40,000 families estimated to cultivate around 171,875 hectares distributed in seven regions of the country have traditionally had low incomes, which do not ensure their well-being and generational renewal.

We are in a moment that should lead us to change. The price of a ton of cocoa has risen from 2000 to 3000 dollars, when it remained for a long time, to more than 11,200 dollars today. For local cocoa producers, this has represented an increase in the price of a quintal from 5,000 and 6,000 pesos to more than 30,000 pesos.

Now, the question is: Are we taking advantage of this bonanza, as is being done in other countries, to transform cocoa cultivation to ensure the medium—and long-term well-being of producer families through an increase in productivity and environmental sustainability? The productivity of Dominican cocoa is around 70 pounds per task (0.155 acres or 628.86 square meters/7,000 square feet), which is considered very low.

So, renovating the stagnant plantations is key to achieving these objectives. It is not clear that we are doing it properly, even though on November 12, 2020, President Luis Abinader issued decree number 641-20, through which he declared the cultivation and export of cocoa to be of high national interest, to enhance its transcendental social, economic and environmental contributions to the sustainable development of the country.

There are indeed factors that have become a hurdle that we must jump into: the atomization of ownership (most of the production is in the hands of small producers) and the lack of ownership of the plots, which makes financing difficult. However, given the strategic importance of these crops, they are challenges that we must feel obliged to overcome.