Jamaica’s cocoa output halves as ageing trees drag production to new lows

Jamaica’s cocoa production has fallen to roughly half its recent output, constrained by an ageing tree stock and a greying farmer base.

It has prompted calls to fast-track an ongoing national replanting programme.

Nine out of every 10 cocoa trees on the island are more than 40 years old. That’s four times past their prime producing age, according to Clayton Williams, president of the Jamaica Cocoa Farmers’ Association (JCFA). A succession of droughts and hurricanes has compounded the damage, battering trees that were already less resilient due to age.

Cocoa trees take three to five years after planting before they start bearing pods, and reach maximum production in about 10 years. With most of the existing stock beyond its productive life, a meaningful recovery in national output is unlikely before the end of the decade, even if replanting accelerates, admitted Williams.

The ageing farmer population compounds the problem. Williams said most cocoa farmers are themselves over 70 years old – skilled, but beyond retirement. Younger farmers, he added, are not being drawn to the sector.

“Our problem is production,” he said.

Production dropped by one-third to 136.4 tonnes for the crop year ended September 2025, and has halved since post-pandemic highs of 263 tonnes in 2022, according to the Planning Institute of Jamaica’s Economic and Social Survey.

The decline comes as the world price of cocoa has tripled from US$2.43 per kilogramme in 2021 to US$7.80 in 2025, according to World Bank commodity price data published by the PIOJ. But most Jamaican farmers are unable to get beans to export markets to capture that windfall. For farmers selling locally, however, the farm gate price has risen by one-third to $160,000 a tonne in 2025 from $120,000 in 2021, a fraction of the global surge.

The Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA) within the last fiscal year had begun replanting. JACRA started grafting cocoa seedlings as part of a broader rehabilitation strategy aimed at restoring production, according to the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica, published annually by the state-led Planning Institute of Jamaica. The Scientific Research Council has started storing varieties resistant to hurricane damage and diseases in its Gene Bank – including Frosty Pod Rot. Also, cocoa experts from Trinidad and Tobago offered genetics from varieties within that territory known globally for its premium cocoa. Furthermore, JACRA collected 150 cocoa seeds of improved varieties from three parishes.

Williams, whose organisation represents just under half of Jamaica’s roughly 6,000 cocoa farmers, wants all farmers to begin populating their farms with grafted plants from the Government. This will ensure a standardised plant ready for production with a distinct taste profile.

“Grafted plants require trained personnel – a farmer cannot merely plant a seed into the ground and get a high-producing cocoa tree. To maintain a flavour profile, we have to plant specific varieties, and the way to ensure that is to graft those plants. Therefore, the Government has to engage the private-sector nursery operators to provide those plants and distribute them to the farmers,” Williams told the Financial Gleaner.

Jamaica’s chocolatiers have won international awards with artisanal brands. The fall in production means the sector remains even less capable of supplying larger brand orders.

“The question is, can we supply these chocolate makers?” Williams said.

The major cocoa-producing parishes are St Mary, Portland, St Thomas, St Andrew, St Catherine and Clarendon.

luke.douglas@gleanerjm.com