Peru

Peru is a significant cacao producer and one of the world's leading exporters of certified-organic cocoa. Much of the modern industry expanded from the 1990s, when cacao was promoted across the upper Amazon as an alternative crop to coca through alternative-development programmes; production today is organised largely through cooperatives and smallholders.

The main growing belt runs along the eastern Andean foothills and Amazon lowlands. San Martín, centred on the Huallaga valley, is the leading region, followed by zones in Junín (Satipo), Ucayali, Huánuco (Tingo María), Amazonas (Bagua) and Cusco. Distinctive native origins include Chuncho in the La Convención province of Cusco, the white-bean Piura Blanco of the dry northern coast, and the Nacional-type material rediscovered in 2007 in the Marañón River canyon.

The Peruvian Amazon lies within the centre of the species' natural diversity and is rich in native germplasm. The modern taxonomy (Motamayor et al. 2008) draws on Peruvian populations for clusters such as Contamana, documented in the Ucayali valley; SNP studies place Chuncho close to Contamana. Most cultivated material is admixed or hybrid, with native and Criollo-leaning types conserved on selected farms and in clonal collections.