Cocoa is best known for its derived

Cocoa is best known for its derived products, especially chocolates, rather than in its original
botanical form i.e. fruits and beans. These products are consumed in great demand worldwide
due to its unique flavour and aroma that cannot be replaced by other plant products. Theobroma cacao is the name given to the cocoa tree and belongs to the family Sterculiaceae. Cocoa trees are found wild in the rain forest of the western hemisphere from 18°N to 15°S, which is from Mexico to the southern edge of the Amazon forests [1]. Theobroma cacao is the only species cultivated commercially in major producing countries such as Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Brazil, Ecuador, Indonesia and Malaysia. The Forastero and Criollo are the two main varieties planted. However, the criollo variety is mostly planted in the Central and South America and produces in small volume. This variety is conventionally referred to as ‘fine’ cocoa due to its unique flavour that cannot be found in the forastero types. Currently, Ivory Coast is the leader in cocoa production follows by Ghana and Indonesia. The current world production of cocoa beans is estimated at 3520,000 tonnes while the grinding is estimated at 3678,000 tonnes for year 2008/09 [2]. . Figure 1 shows the production output from major producing countries.