VALUE OF CACAO BEANS IMPORTED INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM (TO NEAREST £1,000).
| Total value of Cacao | From British Possessions. | ||
| Year. | Beans Imported. | Value. | Per cent. |
| 1913 | £2,199,000 | £1,158,000 | 52.7 |
| 1914 | £2,439,000 | £1,204,000 | 49.4 |
| 1915 | £5,747,000 | £3,546,000 | 61.7 |
| 1916 | £6,498,000 | £4,417,000 | 68.0 |
| 1917 | £3,498,000 | £3,010,000 | 86.0 |
| 1918 | £3,040,000 | £2,549,000 | 83.8 |
| 1919 | £9,207,000 | £6,639,000 | 72.1 |
That the consumption of cacao is expected to grow greater yet in the immediate future is reflected in the prices of raw cacao, which, as soon as they were no longer fixed by the Government, rose rapidly, thus Accra cacao rose from 65s. per hundredweight to over 90s. per hundredweight in a few weeks, and now (January, 1920) stands at 104s. (See diagram [p. 113]).
World Consumption.
The world's consumption of cacao is steadily rising. Before the war the United States, Germany, Holland, Great Britain, France, and Switzerland were the principal consumers. Whilst we have increased our consumption, so that Great Britain now occupies second place, the United States has outstripped all the other countries, having doubled its consumption in a few years, and is now taking almost as much as all the rest of the world put together. It is thought that since America has "gone dry" this remarkably large consumption is likely to be maintained.