Cocoa
Cacao — the source of chocolate — is an understory tree of the deep, wet tropics. It cannot take frost, drought or full sun, so it hugs the equator within about 20 degrees, led by a West African belt from Côte d'Ivoire to Ghana.
How it grows
Cocoa grows on a tree — the fruit ripens above the ground, up in the canopy.
What it’s worth to grow
Farm-gate value = the price farmers are paid per kilogram (FAOSTAT producer prices, median of 122 positive country-year observations spanning 2018–2024). It tracks how costly and labour-intensive a crop is to grow — almonds and vanilla command a premium; potatoes and cereals are cheap staples.
Where Earth's climate suits cocoa
Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).
Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it
The climate where it grows
— mean monthly temperature ▍ monthly rainfall — averaged over the actual growing areas (the suitable cells) inside each country, so it reflects where the crop is really grown, not the national average. AgroClim 1991–2025 normals. The 🌧 badge is the last 3 months’ rainfall as a percentage of the 1991–2020 CHIRPS normal (through 2025-12) — the current drought/deluge signal.
Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop
Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±20° · soil pH 4–8.
Growing calendar & hazards
In the equatorial tropics it flowers and pods almost continuously, with one or two main harvest peaks a year tied to the local rains.
- Drought. A pronounced dry season stresses the shallow-rooted tree and cuts the pod set.
- Cold. Even brief cold below ~10°C damages it; frost is fatal.
- Disease. Black pod, witches' broom and swollen-shoot virus take a large share of the world crop.