Peru, the most southerly producing land on the west coast can likewise only boast of a very insignificant yield, chiefly destined for home consumption.
Brazil, with its two great sorts for consumption, Bahia and Para cacao, and a yearly production of round 33,000 tons, has from the years 1906-1909 far outrun all other harvesting lands. Yet although it was able to increase this to 36,250 tons in 1911 it must nevertheless take second place among cultivating lands, the Gold Coast and Ecuador preceding.
A most important factor on the market is included under the specification Bahia-cacao. Here again the shipping port has given its name to the cacao sort. It is harvested in three southerly situated districts, Ilheos, Belmonte, and Canavieiras, and is despatched to Bahia from harbours of the same name, in sailing vessel which sometimes ship a thousand sacks.
Ilheos despatches the inferior of the two principal varieties “Fair fermented” and “Superior fermented” that is, the first-named, and so furnishes two-thirds of the Bahia crop. The cacao areas in the district of Ilheos are situated on rather high and mountainous ground, where arresting atmospheric conditions often predominate. Also the absence of any waterway whatever renders it a necessity to despatch the cacao to Bahia on beasts of burden, which during the rainy season can scarcely find a footing on the beaten tracks. It is, then, the unfavourable atmospheric conditions, combined with a certain carelessness on the part of the planter in the preparing processes, which prejudices the otherwise excellent quality of the Bahia bean, and more especially in the months of June, July and August.
At this period it is no rarity to find from 10 to 20 percent of waste beans, and in general only the December-February months offer anything approaching a guarantee as to quality. But here no hard and fast rule can be adduced.
Belmonte and Canavieiras are the districts of the “Superior fermented” cacaos. The lower lay of the land is responsible for other climatic conditions, and in addition, both harbours here are situated at the mouths of rivers which afford an easy and sure means of transport. So the cacao, which is also better roasted,—a few planters even drying in ovens—reaches the market in a much better condition, and fetches at least from 3-4 sh. a cwt. more than the “Fair Fermented” variety.
In all three districts, the beans are prepared in wooden boxes, covered with banana skin, in which the Ilheos variety is allowed to ferment from 2-3 days, and the superior from 2-5 days: this after they have been well shaken up. In Belmonte considerable drying takes place on the sand there deposited by the river in large quantities.
The harvesting is generally reckoned from April 1st. to March 31st. In June and July is the intermediate harvest, whilst the months from October to February supply the bulkiest crops.
The Bahia district yields yearly about 33,500 tons, a fourth part of which is devoted to the consumption of the United States, the remainder chiefly going to Germany, France and Switzerland. The return is still on the increase, and large stretches of land await cultivation.
Para cacao is the denomination of all those sorts shipped from the tracts of land lying along the banks of the Amazon and its mighty tributaries, more especially from Manaos and Itacoatiara, through Para, a port situated on the eastern arm of the delta. These varieties may be classed as intermediary between Bahia and good Sumana. The yearly yield (harvest months June-August) amounts to about 5,000 tons, a comparatively small figure in view of the enormous expanses capable of planting, where the cacao tree at present grows wild, or at least uncultivated. It is true that the returns for 1891 reached 6,500; only to be diminished by half in 1908. France is by far the chief country consuming Para cacao; the sort not meeting with especial favour in other states.