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Venezuelan Cacao and Chocolate

Cacao

Agricultural region

Venezuela grows CRIOLLO cacao — the aromatic, low-yielding, disease-prone variety that is the reference point for fine chocolate — and CHUAO, a coastal village in Aragua reachable only by boat, holds a denomination of origin and is among the most sought-after cacao in the world. Also Ocumare de la Costa, Choroní, Carenero, Sur del Lago in Zulia, and Río Caribe in Sucre. ⚠ BARLOVENTO IN MIRANDA IS THE HEART OF IT and is also the heart of AFRO-VENEZUELAN Venezuela, because cacao was a slave crop: the connection between the plantation and the population is the point, not a coincidence. Venezuela was the world’s leading cacao exporter in the eighteenth century and production has since collapsed to a small fraction of its peak.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Afro-Venezuelans community documented

Languages: Spanish

What is recorded

  • Venezuela grows criollo cacao and holds a denomination of origin for Chuao in Aragua, among the most sought-after cacao in the world. Venezuela was the leading cacao exporter globally in the eighteenth century; production has since fallen to a small fraction of that peak. Cacao cultivation used enslaved African labour, and the concentration of Afro-Venezuelan population in Barlovento and the cacao coasts is a direct consequence. documented
  • The cacao economy of colonial Venezuela, worked by enslaved Africans, makes the colony the world’s leading cacao exporter and creates the Afro-Venezuelan population of Barlovento and the cacao coasts. documented

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