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Togo cocoa beans have a woody, coconut-like, herbal flavour that distinguishes them from her neighbours cocoa beans. Despite her size, Togo produces about 20000-22000 metric tons annually, which contributes to 0.4% of the total cocoa beans produced globally.

The Togolese economy largely depends on agriculture, with the sector contributing up to 40% of the total GDP. Cocoa farming was commercialised in Togo in the 1960s and took off immediately. Cocoa farming is mainly done with smallholder farmers with less than 3 hectares of land and has been considered lucrative with one hectare yielding an average of 400 kgs. 

Cocoa being a perennial crop that thrives in a humid, tropical environment, does well in Togo as its climatic conditions are suitable. The southern plateaus of Kpalime and Antimovo regions are some of the areas where cocoa farming is practised. These areas receive an annual average rainfall of 1500 mm- 2000mm and temperatures ranging from 30 – 32ºC

There are two harvest seasons for cocoa harvest in Togo, the main and short season. The primary season runs from October to March and is characterised by bulky yield where the latter runs from April to November and has much-reduced quantities.

There is a total of three varieties of cocoa beans grown in Togo, These are;

• Criollo- The pods are yellow or red when ripe, does not produce as much but is the best quality of cocoa beans
• Forastero- Has smooth yellow pods, produces quite well with fairly good quality.
• Trinitario- is a crossbreed of Criollo and forastero. It produces well and has equally good quality.

However, Togo cocoa beans are mainly the Amelonado which is a subspecies of the Forastero.

Cocoa harvesting is manually intensive, as every process is done by hand. However, because smallholder farmers farm most of the cocoa beans, they can easily monitor the plant until they are ready for harvest. When mature, the pods of the cocoa turn red or yellow. After harvesting, they are heaped together to ferment. 

Social businesses and local governments in Togo have ensured that smallholder farmers are equipped with knowledge on quality standards as well as fermentation techniques. 

After 6-10 days of fermentation, the beans are dried to reduce the moisture content from 70% to 6%. Farmers can easily monitor the drying of the cocoa beans. Most Togo farmers are organised in farmer groups that are responsible for picking up the beans after drying.

The beans are then packed in 60kg sacks and transported to Lome where they are ready for shipping.

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