Brazil

Brazil is a major cacao producer and also one of the largest consumers and grinders of cocoa, so much of its crop is absorbed domestically. The country's cacao history is dominated by southern Bahia, where the Ilhéus–Itabuna belt was developed under the native Atlantic Forest shade of the 'cabruca' agroforestry system. Bahian production was devastated by witches' broom disease from the late 1980s; recovery has relied on disease-tolerant clones and a growing fine-flavour bean-to-bar sector.

Production is increasingly diversified. Espírito Santo, especially Linhares in the lower Rio Doce valley, has high yields from irrigated full-sun plantings, while the Amazon states — Pará (with Medicilândia on the Transamazon Highway often cited as the largest single producing municipality, and Tomé-Açu's diversified SAFTA agroforestry) and the faster-growing Rondônia — account for a rising share of output.

Genetically, long-established Bahian populations are overwhelmingly Amelonado-derived; studies of two-century-old plantations report local varieties such as Comum and Parazinho as near-pure Amelonado within the Forastero group of the modern taxonomy (Motamayor et al. 2008). The wider Amazon basin, including Brazilian territory, is the centre of the species' natural genetic diversity. Several origins, including Linhares and Tomé-Açu, hold Brazilian geographical indications.