Chocolate has become a common food in daily life, and chocolate is made from cocoa, but do you know that cocoa is also grown on Hainan Island in China? Maybe the chocolate you eat one day is the cocoa native to our Hainan Island. Learn about the history and current status of cocoa cultivation on Hainan Island today.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the history of cocoa cultivation in Hainan</h1>
In June 1954, the returned overseas Chinese from Qiong introduced a red-skinned cocoa fruit from Indonesia, containing 28 seeds, and sowed it in Hainan Xinglong Overseas Chinese Farm, with a germination rate of 100%. Later, from February to the end of 1956, the South China Reclamation Bureau imported cocoa fruits (210) and cocoa seeds (0.06 kg) from Indonesia and Malaysia for many times, and distributed them to the Hainan Reclamation Sub-bureau and the South China Institute of Tropical Crops Science in stages and batches for seedlings and trial planting.
Since then, the area under cultivation has continued to expand, and it is comparable to some other cocoa producing countries in the world in terms of yield and quality per mu. At that time, the main planting areas in Hainan were distributed in Xinglong Huaqiao Farm and Baoting Tropical Crops Research Institute south of Wanning County to Sanya.
In 1985, with the encouragement of the local government, soybean farmers began to expand the planting area, and farms in Nantian, Nanping, Sandao, Nanbin, Jinjiang and other farms in Hainan began to plant. The production capacity reached its peak in 1988, with a planting area of 2,400 acres and an annual output of 99.6 tons, which is similar to the annual production of small production areas such as Hawaii and Australia today.
In 1989, due to a huge typhoon, the newly expanded production of Hainan cocoa planting industry suffered a disaster. At the same time, at that time, the domestic consumer market, baking industry, food manufacturing industry are still in the initial stage, the demand market is immature, making the income of soybean farmers unpredictable, planting industry is shaky. Extreme weather became the last straw that crushed the camels. Since then, China has completely withdrawn from the world cocoa cultivation market and has not resumed commercial cultivation.
However, in recent years, the Tropical Spice Beverage Research Institute has promoted the intercropping cocoa under the forest by exploring the model of "scientific research institutes + enterprises + farmers", and has planted more than 3,000 mu of cocoa in Qionghai, Wanning, Lingshui, Baoting, Ledong and other cities and counties.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the current status of cocoa cultivation in Hainan</h1>
The conditions for planting cacao trees are very demanding. In the high temperature and high humidity area between the north and south latitudes of the equator, the altitude cannot be higher than 1000 meters, the average annual temperature cannot be lower than 10 degrees Celsius, and the humidity cannot be less than 70%.
Hainan cocoa is mainly grown intercropping, with other tall fruit trees planted at intervals to provide shade. Among them, coconut intercropping cocoa, betel nut intercropping cocoa and rubber intercropping cocoa are the main planting modes, and some pure densely planted cocoa.
Cocoa plantation in Wanning, Hainan, Image source: Internet
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > cocoa planting area in Hainan</h1>
Hainan Island is the largest "tropical treasure land" in China, with a total land area of 3.442 million hectares, accounting for about 42.5% of the country's tropical land area. The land available for agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishing is about 0.48 hectares per capita. Hainan has unique natural conditions, warm climate, high air humidity, and the cocoa planted here has extraordinary vitality. Hainan has a tropical and subtropical monsoon climate with high temperature and rainy, long summer and no winter, and is the most abundant area in China in terms of heat and moisture, which is suitable for tropical crop growth.
The annual rainfall in each cocoa vegetation area is generally above 1500mm, but the rainfall distribution is uneven, and there are obvious drought periods; the soil fertility is medium, the organic matter content is 1.5% to 2.5%, and most of them belong to brick red soil, brown brick red soil, mountainous land, yellow soil, etc.
All in all, Hainan has good light and heat conditions, abundant rainfall and fertile soil. These environmental and climatic conditions are more similar to those of major producing countries such as Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Malaysia, and can meet the conditions required for cocoa growth and development.
In Hainan, the most suitable planting areas for cocoa are in the southern and southeastern regions, including Wenchang, Qionghai, Wanning, Baoting, Chengmai, Anding, Tunchang, Qiongzhong, Wuzhishan, Ledong, Sanya, Dongfang and Danzhou, with a commercial cultivation area of more than 600 hectares.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Hainan cocoa production can not meet domestic demand</h1>
According to statistics, the raw materials of cocoa products on the market in China almost rely on imports, and the production of cocoa beans in Hainan is 50 tons to 100 tons, which is rare compared with the national demand. Because China produces less cocoa, China is a net importer of cocoa products. In recent years, China's imports of cocoa and cocoa products have continued to grow, and in the first half of this year, cocoa products worth 1.918 billion yuan were imported.
Source: China Customs
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > cocoa festival</h1>
In addition, on October 18, 2019, the first Cocoa Culture Festival hosted by the Xinglong Tropical Botanical Garden of the Spice and Beverage Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences was grandly opened in Wanning Xinglong today.
With the theme of "New Development of Cultural Tourism Integration, Creating a New Highland for Cocoa Industry", the cultural festival focuses on the cutting-edge technology, processing technology and marketing concepts of cocoa by holding opening ceremonies, cooperation signing ceremonies, cocoa industry summit forums, colorful chocolate displays, cocoa theme fun interactive experiences and other activities, disseminates cocoa culture, and creates a Hainan cocoa cultural tourism experience destination, so that more people can understand cocoa, publicize cocoa, and promote the rapid development of the cocoa industry.
At the same time, it is worth noting that at present, Hainan cocoa cultivation has not yet formed an industrial scale and is still in the initial stage of market development. But I believe that with the guidance of the government, the support of the market, and the efforts of scientific research teams and enterprises, the Cocoa industry in Hainan will be as sweet as chocolate.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > references:</h1>
1. "China Cocoa Industry Report (2020)", Coffee Finance Network
2. "World Cocoa Industry Overview and Suggestions for the Development of Hainan Cocoa Industry[J].Tropical Agricultural Sciences", Zhu Zihui
3. "What Happened in 1989, Why Cocoa Cultivation Suffered a Disaster", Xiao Fang