Cocoa prices gain on demand, short supply.

Kochi: Higher demand, of late, has kept cocoa bean prices in the country at higher levels.

In Kerala, where once the farmers, who were compelled to cut down all their cocoa plants when its prices dropped to rock bottom and remained at that level for several years, are now happy. For cocoa “we get the yield for about 10 months a year. From the eighth year onwards, we will get 1.25-1.50 tonnes of wet beans from an acre”, Mr Joshua Daniel, a grower of cocoa, pepper, arecanut etc, in Konni, Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district told Business Line. He said now wet beans fetched Rs 35-40 a kg while dried beans Rs 120-150 a kg.