Cocoa belt
Topic: Primary Activities: Gathering, Pastoralism, Agriculture and Mining · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Cocoa, the bean used to make chocolate, needs hot, humid equatorial lowlands and shade. The main growing area, the cocoa belt, lies in West Africa. Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana together grow about 60% of the world's cocoa (verify current). Cocoa is a plantation crop. The French first set up cocoa and coffee plantations in West Africa during colonial times. With so much of the crop grown in one small area, bad weather there can push world prices up sharply, as happened in 2023–24 (verify current).
Example
Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, on the Gulf of Guinea coast of West Africa, form the heart of the cocoa belt.
Don't confuse with
- Coffee-producing regions: coffee grows mainly on frost-free tropical highlands, led by Brazil. Cocoa grows on hot, wet equatorial lowlands, led by West Africa.