{"id":237914,"date":"2025-06-25T07:17:38","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T11:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/?p=237914"},"modified":"2025-06-25T09:35:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T13:35:09","slug":"dominican-cacao-exports-surge-56-48-from-january-to-may-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/2025\/06\/25\/dominican-cacao-exports-surge-56-48-from-january-to-may-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominican cacao exports up 56.48% from January to May 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Dominican Republic is a leading regional cacao producer and exporter. The challenge ahead is to increase local consumption and export more finished products, a report in El Dia reveals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, stimulated by rising international prices, cacao exports have experienced a significant increase in revenues for their crops. From January to May 2025, raw cacao and cacao byproduct exports reached US$128.98 million, marking a 56.48% increase compared to the same period in 2024, when exports totaled US$82.43 million, according to the Customs Agency (DGA), as reported in El Dia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This surge helped consolidate cacao as the country\u2019s second most exported product under the national trade regime, contributing to an overall export total of US$5.64 billion\u2014an 8.62% year-on-year growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from ProDominicana, the national export center, presents an even more optimistic figure: US$247.7 million in cocoa-related exports, representing a 76.6% year-on-year increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between January and May, 26 exporters from six provinces shipped Dominican cocoa to 18 international markets, with the United States, Belgium, and the Netherlands ranking as top destinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Low domestic consumption, high global demand
Despite producing nearly 80,000 tons of cacao annually, the Dominican Republic consumes just 5% of its output domestically\u2014around 4,000 tons, according to Isidoro de La Rosa, executive director of the National Confederation of Cacao Producers (Conacado).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe remaining 95% is exported, mostly in raw form,\u201d said De La Rosa in an interview with El D\u00eda. Only 5% of exports consist of semi-processed or derived products. Roughly half of all exports go to European markets, while the other half heads to the US and other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, the country exported 66,000 tons of cacao, generating around US$425 million in revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De La Rosa also highlighted rising prices. A quintal of cacao (approximately 46 kg) now fetches RD$23,000, up significantly from RD$15,000 to RD$16,000 last year, and far above the RD$7,000 to RD$10,000 range seen in previous years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next challenge is to add value
While the Dominican Republic has registered 42,000 cacao producers, only a small portion of these are involved in value-added processing. De La Rosa emphasized that to truly strengthen the sector and reduce dependency on raw exports, the country needs to invest approximately US$50 million in industrial infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also called for initiatives to boost domestic consumption, citing a need to revive cultural habits such as drinking hot chocolate in the morning\u2014a common practice in the past but one that has largely faded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA structured plan is needed to foster a cacao-consuming culture among Dominicans,\u201d he urged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As global demand continues to rise and prices climb, stakeholders see an opportunity not only for economic growth through exports but also for building a stronger, more resilient cacao industry at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the times are good. Diario Libre reports how cacao is living golden age with high prices on global markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more in Spanish:
El Dia <\/a>
Diario Libre <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

25 June 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dominican Republic is a leading regional cacao producer and exporter. The challenge ahead is to increase local consumption and export more finished products, a report in El Dia reveals. Meanwhile, stimulated by rising international prices, cacao exports have experienced a significant increase in revenues for their crops. From January to May 2025, raw cacao … <\/p>\n

Read more\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[337,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237914"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237959,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237914\/revisions\/237959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}