ABSTRACT
Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) plays an important role in the growing nations’ economies. It is native to the upper Amazon region of South America (Bartley, 2005). The fruit of cacao, termed cocoa, is a part of the tree that is most valued and, together with seeds, is most closely connected with the crop commercial outcome (Bartley, 2005). Cacao is cultivated in many countries of South and Central America, Africa, Asia and Oceania, located mostly between 10° North and South of the Equator. West Africa has dominated the world cocoa market. The main cacao-growing countries of West Africa, namely Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Togo make up above 70% of the world’s annual cocoa production (ICCO, 2017). It may be possible to produce cocoa beans in large volumes also in other regions, but replicating the unique flavour, chemical and physical characteristics of the West African cocoa, may prove to be a task very difficult to achieve (Taylor and Taylor, 2006).
