ABSTRACT
It is still not possible to precisely locate the geographical site of origin of coffee and cocoa - the two most important commercial plantation crops. Scientists consider that coffee originated from Ethiopia and was widely spread subsequently in Africa, Southern America and Asia (Bailly and Garcia-Garcia, 1992; Barel, 1994). The cocoa plant was cultivated in America by the Mayas and the Aztecs before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors, who spread it in all their colonial countries of America. From Spain, cocoa was then spread to France and Italy. The plantations developed well in the French Antigua, from where the Europeans introduced cocoa into South East Asia and the islands of Fernande Pô, Sao Tome and Principe. In Africa, the cocoa plant was introduced only during the 19th century, first in Ghana, then in Nigeria, Cameroon and the Ivory Coast (Harwich, 1992; Lanteigne, 2004).
