International Journal of Scientific Research and Engineering Development-– Volume 3 Issue 6, Nov-Dec 2020 Available at www.ijsred.com ISSN : 2581-7175 ©IJSRED: All Rights are Reserved Page 147 Theobroma Cacao: Processing Into Products, and Economic Impact Daniel Eshun (Department of Biotechnology, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara) Email: danshun.de5@gmail.com Abstract The Food of the Gods, Theobroma cacao, provides the raw material for multibillion dollar chocolate industry and other cocoa-based products processing industries. It is also the world's primary source of revenue for millions of smallholder farmers, helping in the alleviation of poverty in most cocoa producing regions. This review focuses on the transformation of cocoa into various products such as chocolate, cocoa powder and cocoa butter, as well as the utilisation of cocoa by-products for useful gains. It also highlights the global economic impacts of cacao and its derivatives, right from production, through harvesting, post-harvest treatments, exportation and importation, industrial processing, till it reaches the consumer. Keywords: Theobroma cacao, cocoa processing, cocoa products, cocoa by-products, economics of cocoa. 1. Introduction Theobroma cacao, commonly known as cocoa is one of the most important, if not the most important economical agricultural commodity for the survival of millions of people in the world. The lives of more than 40 million people are solely dependent on cocoa [1, 2]. It is generally known that, the majority of the world cocoa production (80%-90%) comes from smallholder farmers or farms up to 5 hectares [3]. This is not far from the situation in Ghana, making cocoa a vital agricultural produce for alleviating poverty especially in cocoa growing regions. According to the 48 th Annual Report and Financial Statements of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) of 30 th September, 2017, the world cocoa production was evaluated at 4.6 million tons as reported by the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) in 2016/2017, seeing a 15% increase from the previous year. Of this total, West Africa Sub- region accounted for about 74% of global cocoa supply with Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana dominating as usual, as the leading producers of cocoa globally. In the aforementioned report, global consumption of cocoa beans, as measured by grindings, was estimated at 4.24 million tons in 2016/2017, which saw a 2.12% increase from the previous year. Among the cocoa-producing nations, Ghana is estimated to have contributed 850,000 tons to global production in 2019/2020 (Table 1). This gives an indication that, cocoa is still the most vital and one of the most important economic agricultural commodities for the nation and the globe respectively. RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS