A COCOA FLOWER: Cocoa trees flower for around six months of the year. These flower buds are used by Nestlé agronomists to make thousands of identical trees, with no genetic modification.
The Cocoa Plan:
Plant science, technology and sustainable cocoa
Cocoa is essential to the livelihoods of 40 to 50 million people worldwide, including the over five million smallholder farmers who produce it.
In order for cocoa farmers to produce a greater quantity of better quality cocoa, it is vital to replace old, low-yield, diseased trees on an ongoing basis.
Nestlé started its research on propagating better quality, high-yield cocoa plantlets over 10 years ago, as part of a 30 year programme to develop accelerated propagation technologies at its research centre in Tours, France. Read more about Nestlé plant science and sustainable cocoa.