CACAO BEANS CLEARED FOR HOME CONSUMPTION.
| Year. | English Tons. | |
| 1830 | 450 | |
| 1840 | 900 | |
| 1850 | 1,400 | |
| 1860 | 1,450 | |
| 1870 | 3,100 | |
| 1880 | 4,700 | |
| 1890 | 9,000 | |
| 1900 | 16,900 | |
| 1910 | 24,550 |
CACAO BEANS IMPORTED INTO UNITED KINGDOM.
| Year. | Total Imported tons. | Retained in the country tons. | Home Consumption tons. |
| 1912 | 33,600 | 27,450 | 24,600 |
| 1913 | 35,000 | 28,200 | 23,200 |
| 1914 | 41,750 | 29,600 | 24,900 |
| 1915 | 81,800 | 54,400 | 40,300 |
| 1916 | 88,800 | 64,750 | 29,300 |
| 1917 | 57,900 | 53,100 | 41,300 |
The above figures are compiled from the Bulletin of the Imperial Institute (No. 1, 1919). The total imports for 1918 were 42,390 tons. This sudden and marked drop in the amount imported was due to shortage of shipping. There were, however, large quantities of cacao in stock, and the amount consumed showed a marked advance on previous years, being 61,252 tons.
The Board of Trade Returns for 1919 are as follow:
CACAO BEANS IMPORTED INTO UNITED KINGDOM.
| From | |
| British West Africa | 72,886 tons |
| British West Indies | 13,219 tons |
| Ecuador | 9,153 tons |
| Brazil | 3,665 tons |
| Ceylon | 903 tons |
| Other Countries | 13,820 tons |
| Total | 113,646 tons |
| Home Consumption | 64,613 tons |
It will be noted that the import of British cacao is over 75 per cent. of the total.
Before the war about half the cacao imported into the United Kingdom was grown in British possessions. During the war more and more British cacao was imported, and now that a preferential duty of seven shillings per hundredweight has been given to British Colonial growths we shall probably see a still higher percentage of British cacao consumed in the United Kingdom.