Latin America’s farmers are cashing in on hot hot cocoa prices

But cocoa, the core ingredient in chocolate, is bucking the trend. Output has risen in Ecuador and Brazil, the region’s two largest growers, as well as in countries like Peru, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, which produce less. That is mostly down to luck. The areas where cocoa is grown, such as the coastal provinces in Ecuador and north-eastern Brazil, escaped the worst of the weather.