A planter holds a cocoa pod at a field in Essessana, a village in Cameroon, in 2022.
Photographer: Kepseu/Xinhua/Zuma PressCocoa’s Surge Is Drawing Africa’s Farmers Back to the Bean
With global prices for the commodity hitting $10,000 a ton, there’s a drive to plant more trees.
In Cameroon, the astonishing surge in the price of cocoa has Banyuy Elsie Kinyuy planning the next chapter of her life. In November, the 57-year-old high school tutor bought a 3-hectare (7.4-acre) parcel of land about 200 kilometers (124 miles) northwest from her home in Yaoundé, the capital. The cocoa trees she’s planted there should begin bearing fruit by the time she retires in three years.
Laying the groundwork for Kinyuy’s career switch hasn’t come cheap. The traditional chief who sold her the plot also collected a fee of three goats, 40 liters (10.5 gallons) of palm wine and a bag of salt to grant her permission to farm the cash crop.