The BCR reports that exports of cocoa and derived products grew by 20.8 % in the first semester.
Salvadoran cocoa exports reached a record number in the last three decades, after accumulating more than $3.8 million in the first half of 2024, according to the Central Reserve Bank (BCR).
The institution records that exports grew by 20.8% compared to the $3.1 million reported in the same period of 2023. According to the BCR, the income generated from the sale of ancestral grain is the most significant since 1994.
El Salvador has maintained exports of cocoa and derived products over the past 30 years, despite low production because plantations had been minimized in the face of the expansion of other crops, such as sugar cane and basic grains.
If the dynamism continues, cocoa exports will close in 2024 in growth after there was a fall of 1.6 per cent at the end of 2023. The Central Bank records that last year Salvadoran producers exported 2.44 million kilograms of cocoa and preparations, valued at $6.17 million.
By 2023, each pound was sold at an average of $2.52. Meanwhile, the price recorded in the first half of 2024 shows an improvement, as the BCR records that each kilo was exported at $2.69, an increase of 6.7%.
Export destination
In the first semester, the United States was the main buyer of Salvadoran cocoa, with more than $1.66 million, with a 43 percent stake.
Grain cultivation was reactivated in 2014 with the Cocoa Alliance, which will close the operation next September after two stages. When it began to be implemented, preliminary studies identified that there were only 800 blocks grown.
Currently, the program records that 2,050 families are grain producers on more than 3,405 hectares in the Agroforestry System (SAF), an ecosystem that includes the cultivation of fruits, coffee and legumes.
Alianza Cacao expects the 2024 cycle to exceed the production of 1,500 metric tons, greater than the 1,200 obtained in 2023.
This programme was created for Salvadoran producers to gain ground in the gourmet cocoa markets, rather than to compete with large volume production. At least 31 European chocolate shops acquire the grain crops on local farms.
El Salvador exports cocoa as a country of origin to Italy and France, where it is distributed for five additional European markets: Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and Turkey (has a region located in Eastern Europe).
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo