Returning… to cocoa

Now some of you dear readers might be wondering as to why your Eyewitness is referring to the present efforts of the Dominican Republic to cultivate cocoa here – both Governmental and private initiatives – as “returning”! But yes, Quashie, we have been cultivating cocoa going back all the way to the days of the Dutch!! However, unlike over in Trinidad, where after the abolition of slavery there was a large movement of freedmen – and later time-expired indentured labourers – into cocoa cultivation and processing, our efforts remained in stubborn family holdouts in the Pomeroon and the Canal Polders.
Nowadays, most of what we hear about cocoa cultivation is the use of its leaves to manufacture cocaine – centred in Colombia, where fellas like Pablo Escobar were pioneering entrepreneurs to develop markets in the US and Europe – and the networks to ship and distribute the “White Lady”!! Present production worldwide is around 3700 tonnes annually – with two-thirds of it coming from Colombia!! Now while you may snort (pun intended!!) at that seemingly paltry sum, let’s remember that cocaine wholesales in the US and Europe at about $80–$150 per GRAM (g) or $25,000–$40,000 per kilogram (kg)!! This retails in the streets at between US$80,000 and $150,000 per kg once broken down. So we’re talking about a cool US$400 billion industry!! Nothing to snort at, eh??
Now you might be saying, “Whoa!! The folks from DR ain’t talking about cocaine but cocoa – from which we can make nice chocolate drinks for our bedtime repose and even convert it into even more delectable chocolates – if we’re really ambitious. But hey!! Let’s get real – cocoa wholesales at around US$3,700 per tonne – compared to cocaine’s whopping US$300 MILLION per tonne!! Which one do you think those Guyanese entrepreneurs, whose ganja farms we hear are raided with alarming regularity, are gonna be gravitating into? And the best part of the arrangement is that the cocoa can still be exported since it’s the LEAVES that produce cocaine!!
And then, just as with sugar, what is the best we can do with the 1000 or so hectares we’re talking about that will produce – at best – the same number of tonnes of cocoa compared with the 200,000 tonnes of, say, Brazil??
But then again we can’t forget that while DR produces some 70,000 tonnes of cocoa annually – it steers clear of cocaine manufacture even though it’s one of the major transhipment hubs for cocaine heading to the US and Europe!! Could it be that they don’t want to risk producing the White lady in the DR – but might look aside in Guyana??
Regardless, the authorities gotta be very careful of the risks involved in the cocoa trade. Money makes the world go ‘round and ‘round!!

…to Venezuela
Initially, Exxon was quite leery about President Trump’s entreaty for the US oil majors to return to Venezuela and get involved in rebuilding that country’s production to its historic three million bbl per day!! Pretty much said they’d been burnt badly by Chavez – and conditions were still too fluid for them to make any commitment!! This, of course, was at variance with Chevron, which had remained and announced its return!!
Now we just heard Exxon’s gonna be going to Venezuela to “examine” conditions to determine whether it might also take the plunge!! Your Eyewitness notes that Exxon still has refineries on the US Gulf Coast that process the heavy, sour Venezuelan crude – and they’ve been using Canadian crude to keep going. It would seem that with the promise of getting back the billions awarded at arbitration for the Venezuelan expropriation of its assets – and with other sweeteners – Exxon might dip its toes into the Venezuelan muck!!
All your Eyewitness can say is “good luck” on this big gamble!!

…to roots?
Sanction Man is struggling to take his foot out of his mouth on his castigating Muslim and Christian leaders for permitting LGBT individuals to worship in their mosques!! Claims he was “only” repeating the religions’ position on the issue!!
Ouch!!