Cocoa Origin Focus - Ecuador
- Diego Miranda
- Apr 8
- 7 min read
Strong price incentives during the 2023–25 cocoa bull market have driven a significant boost to Ecuador’s cocoa production, putting it on track to potentially surpass Ghana as the world’s second-largest producer.
As a result, Ecuador is becoming increasingly important in the global cocoa scenario. In this blog, we analyze Ecuador’s position in the cocoa market, how it’s been rising to the top as an origin, and the key drivers shaping its supply.
This piece serves as a crucial guide for cocoa professionals looking to better understand the role that Ecuador plays in the cocoa market.
Ecuador At-a-Glance
Production: 590 MMT in 2025
Cocoa Types: Nacional (Arriba - fine flavor); CCN-51 (high-yield)
Harvest Techniques: Manual (>90%); limited mechanization
Key Regions: Los Ríos; Guayas; Manabí; Esmeraldas (Western Coast)
Average Farm Size: Smallholders; ~5–10 ha
Introduction Cocoa markets have been on a roller coaster for the last few years. The 2023/24 West Africa shortage led prices to rally to their highest level in history, surpassing $12,000/MT.
During this bull market, each country gained or lost in different ways. But if there is one country that took most advantage of this opportunity to rise to the top of the cocoa world, that’s Ecuador.
In this blog, we examine how Ecuadorian cocoa sector developed and grew, allowing it to be in the perfect position to take advantage of the right moment.
Why Ecuador Matters
Ecuador matters because it’s fastest-growing cocoa producer in the world and it’s on track to overtake Ghana as the second largest producer within the next 10 years.
So, as it stands, Ecuador is essentially the rising star of the cocoa markets. If current trends continue, it could surpass Ghana as the second-largest producer and, perhaps, even challenge Ivory Coast one day.
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Beyond production, Ecuador stands out for its fine flavor cocoas and its market structure. Unlike West Africa, its cocoa follows international futures prices, with no fixed farmgate system.
This allows producers to respond much faster to supply and demand shocks, a rare feature in a market long dominated by managed pricing systems.
Together, these factors mean Ecuador is reshaping the global cocoa industry. The changes are gradual but already visible, while analysts, traders, investors, and banks pay far more attention to Latin America than they did before the 2020s.
How it all started
Ecuador has cultivated the cocoa for over 5,000 years, with domesticated varieties and production techniques already established long before European contact.
So, unlike the other origins, Ecuador does not have a “crop introduction” phase, since the country is, along with Peru and possibly the North of Brazil, is the place of origin of the crop.
Ecuador possesses the oldest records of human domestication of cocoa, dating back 5,330 years. Long before cocoa became a global commodity, it was already part of local food systems and cultural life, being consumed by the Mayans and Aztecs in a drink called “xocolatl”.
As a result, by the time the Spanish reached Latin America, the region had already developed domesticated cocoa varieties and production techniques.
Early Years This allowed Ecuador to become one of the first cocoa hubs in the world, exporting its beans to Europe during the colonial period. The process led cocoa farming to move away from its original position in the Amazon basin, moving insted toward the Western Coast, where the exporting logistics and scalability were easier to build and achieve.
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That said, since the bean had already spread to other regions by the time the Spanish arrived, Ecuador was not the only producer, and despite its importance, Ecuadorian exports were overshadowed by larger competitors from what are now Venezuela and Mexico.
Ecuador would not stay behind its neighbors for long, though. Starting in the late eighteenth century, cocoa cultivation expanded rapidly along the coast, eventually becoming the backbone of its export economy. As international demand for chocolate rose, Ecuadorian cacao - especially the highly valued Arriba type - gained a strong reputation in Europe for its aroma and quality.
By the 1880s, Ecuador is often described as accounting for roughly two-thirds of the world’s cacao trade, and when twentieth century began, it was also regarded as the world’s main producer, with a crop of over 25 MMT.
Fine Cocoa
Unfortunately for Ecuador, its time of glory was short-lived. Not long after becoming the global leader in cocoa production and export, the country had its position overtaken in the early twentieth century, with Brazil taking the lead. A few years later, West African nations like Ghana and Ivory Coast expanded their production even further, leaving Ecuador behind in the ranking of the main cocoa players.
With its throne taken and its role reduced to that of a minor producer, Ecuador instead turned to the luxury segment of cocoa. The country took advantage of the different nature of its beans, the Nacional variety, to distinguish itself as a producer of “fine or flavor cocoa.”
This stood in contrast to the bulk cocoa produced in West Africa and much of Brazil, which is predominantly of the Forastero type. Forastero cocoa is generally higher yielding, more disease-resistant, and has a stronger, more bitter flavor profile, making it ideal for mass chocolate production but less differentiated in taste.
Using its advantages and recognizing it would be unable to compete for the top spots with West African countries, Ecuador shifted its strategy and focused on its strengths. As a result, the country spent almost a century as a reference for high-quality, premium cocoa, but with relatively low impact on global markets overall.
A Blessing in Disguise
Much of Ecuador’s cocoa production growth stems from the 1960s Witches’ broom outbreak, which prompted the adoption of higher-yield, disease-resistant varieties like CCN-51.
By the 1960s, Ecuador had already consolidated its position as a fine flavor cocoa producer. It was then that the country was hit by a severe crisis in the form of Witches’ broom, a disease that should be all too familiar to those who follow our Origin Focus blogs. This fungal disease is known for having decimated crops in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Brazil, and many other countries; at that time, Ecuador seemed like it would be its next victim.
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Although the Ecuadorian sector did suffer greatly during this period, this crisis was also the first spark of the country’s return to the spotlight. In an attempt to combat the plague, the agronomist Homero Castro spent 12 years developing a new cocoa variety known as CCN-51, which combined genetic material from Nacional and other high-yielding and disease-resistant types.
Unlike the pure Nacional variety Ecuador was previously known for, CCN-51 was a commercially oriented variety, capable of providing far higher yields, resisting a wide range of diseases and weather disruptions, and producing beans much faster than other varieties.
After its development in the late 1970s, the new variety took several decades to spread throughout the country. The process began in the 1980s, accelerated by the end of the twentieth century, and continued into the first decade of the new millennium. By the end of the 2010s, over one-third of Ecuador’s total planted area was occupied by CCN-51 trees, which, despite still being a minority, were already responsible for over half of total production.
Fruits of Your Labor The CCN-51 variety was key in driving higher production. The variety took a few decades to spread across Ecuador. The new trees also needed time to reach peak productivity, but once they did, the results were tremendous.
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Starting in 2009, the country saw its crop rise rapidly, increasing by an average of 12.0% per year for almost two decades. As a result, total production went from less than 100 MMT by the end of the 2000s to almost 600 MMT in 2025, a trajectory only comparable to what was seen in Ivory Coast and Ghana when they rose to become the first and second largest producers globally.
Besides production, Ecuador also has one of the highest cocoa yields in the world, second only to Peru. This advantage allowed farmers to expand their cultivated area further, as higher productivity made the activity more profitable.
The Ecuadorian Advantages While CCN-51 provided a significant boost, it was not the only reason for Ecuador’s production growth in recent years. The variety also spread to neighboring countries and is now present in most South American origins, even if less widespread than in Ecuador itself.
The Ecuadorian cocoa sector has also been supported by several other factors contributing to its growth. These include improved farming practices such as proper pruning, fertilizer application, and tree replacement. Although these are standard practices for most crops, cocoa farming remains relatively underdeveloped in many regions, with producers often neglecting basic productivity measures.
By adopting these practices, Ecuadorian farms achieved significantly higher yields than most other origins, which is the main driver of its rapid growth. While cocoa production increased by over 560% in the last twenty years, the land area dedicated to cocoa farming grew by only about 33%.
Beyond that, Ecuador did not forget its origins. Although the CCN-51 variety is already the dominant type of cocoa, fine flavor farms are still present, having also benefited from the superior techniques and farming practices. This contrast made Ecuador into a unique existence in the cocoa world, possessing one of the biggest crops, while also keeping a thriving luxury sector.
What is to Come Since the international cocoa trade began in the sixteenth century, its participants have continuously sought to expand their capabilities and surpass competitors. This has led to constant shifts in the ranking of top producers, as countries compete to stay ahead.
Now, it appears to be Ecuador’s turn to reshape the landscape. Supported by other smaller producers, South America has regained its position as a key player in the cocoa trade, challenging the West African dominance that has existed since the second half of the twentieth century.
But Ecuador is not content with that. The country, whose rise to the position of second-largest producer is now widely seen as inevitable, aims for even greater achievements by leveraging both its high yields and the land still available for expansion. The CCN-51 already represents more than 70% of planted trees in Ecuador, and this percentage is expected to rise even further in the coming years.
For a country that increased production more than fivefold in less than ten years, there still seems to be plenty of room for growth.
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