New Steering Committee Targets Cocoa Revival
The Ministry of Agriculture officially launched the Cocoa and Coffee Steering Committee on Tuesday, with Agriculture Minister Ravi Ratiram describing it as a move to reverse a decade of decline in two of T&T’s most valuable products.
Speaking at the launch, Minister Ratiram said the new committee was designed to break institutional fragmentation and enforce coordinated, results-driven action across the value chain.
The Minister said the Committee’s role would go beyond discussion, focusing on rebuilding cocoa and coffee production, improving quality and unlocking economic value from farm to export market.
« Despite contributing less than 1% of national GDP, the cocoa sector occupies a disproportionate strategic position due to its export potential, premium market access, and strong linkages to rural livelihoods. These figures tell a clear story: we are high-value producers operating below our full capacity. This is precisely why the Steering Committee is being established. »
Deputy Chairman of the Cocoa Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago, Professor Pathmanathan Umaharan, said the launch of the Committee marks a critical turning point for the sector, warning that decades of decline had severely weakened the industry.
« With the strides in the oil and gas sector over the years, the cocoa sector has largely become neglected. Our acreage under cocoa has declined from 90,000 hectares to a mere 3,500 hectares at present. Our cocoa production declined from 40,000 metric tonnes a century ago to about 400 to 500 metric tonnes now. So it’s a precipitous decline. The establishment of the Steering Committee is therefore timely and necessary to rebuild the industry. »
The Steering Committee will oversee coordination across production, research, processing, certification and market access.
