Cocoa Beans

Description : Cocoa bean (also cacao bean, often simply cocoa and cacao) is the dried and fully fermented fatty seed of Theobroma cacao, from which cocoa solids and cocoa butter are extracted. A cocoa pod (fruit) has a rough leathery rind about 3 cm thick (this varies with the origin and variety of pod). It is filled with sweet, mucilaginous pulp (called 'baba de cacao' in South America) enclosing 30 to 50 large seeds that are fairly soft and pale pink or lavender in color. Seeds usually are white, becoming violet or reddish brown during the drying process. The exception is rare varieties of white cacao, in which the seeds remain white. Historically, white cacao was cultivated by the Rama people of Nicaragua. It provides means of livelihood, sustenance and employment opportunities to over five million Nigerians, In the year 2005 alone, export revenue from the sale of cocoa amounted to US$136.7 million. Nigeria along with Cote d'lvoire and Ghana all in West Africa, account for about 70% of the world's cocoa production.