RIACHAO DAS NEVES, Brazil ¨C In the Brazilian state of Bahia, farmer Moises Schmidt is developing the world¡¯s largest cocoa farm.
His plan is to revolutionize the way the main ingredient in chocolate is produced, growing high-yield cocoa trees, fully irrigated and fertilized, in an area bigger than the island of Manhattan that is not currently known for producing the beans.
Schmidt¡¯s $300 million plan is the largest and the most innovative in that region, but not the only one. There are similar super-sized projects under development, some of them nearly as big, as well-capitalized farming groups look to apply industrial-scale agriculture expertise to cocoa production to profit from sky-high prices for the beans.
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