Cacao grains constitutes as one of the biggest merchandise traffic in the markets worldwide. In the market of London alone, from January to December in 1995 the commerce of cacao turned into the sum of almost eighteen billion sterling pounds.
Occidental Africa is, with a great advantage, the biggest producer, producing around 1,000,000 tons per year.
The next in line would be Central America and South America with 400,000, Asia and Oceania with 55,000 and the West Indies with 45,000. The biggest producers individually are Brazil and the Ivory Coast, very closely followed by Ghana and Nigeria. Cacao represents the entire and main source of income for Madagascar, Zaire, and Gabon even though they are three minor producers in worldwide terms.
The United States is the main cacao consumer in the world, while this may have to do with the amount of people there are in the U.S.A, out of 4,5 kilograms per year, it is inferior to Switzerland – a country whose name is almost a synonym of chocolate and where about 10,4 kilograms is consumed per person each year – the United Kingdom however is not very far behind as they consume nothing less then 7.7 kilograms per person in chocolate, sweets, and chocolate pastries. The Germans and Westerners consume around 6.14 kilograms and the French a moderate 4 kilograms.
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