🍫Risks associated with cocoa farm investing

So let's talk about the risks associated in cocoa-farm investing -

1. According to the Ghana Cocoa Board, Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus (CSSV) affects 17% of Ghana’s cocoa trees. CSSV is also a serious threat in Côte d’Ivoire. In its most virulent form, CSSV can reduce yields by about 70% and cause the death of a tree within 3 years. Protective measures include pruning, use of disease-free planting material from known sources, and the planting of barrier crops.

2. Coffee, for instance, can prevent the mealybug, which carries CSSV, from reaching cocoa trees. Once the virus spreads, the only way to eradicate it is to cut down in trees and to replant using control strategies, isolating the newly planted farms with a boundary of immune crops.

3. The West African cocoa tree stock is also aging. On many farms, trees have exceeded their optimal productive age and productivity is steadily declining