The chief harvesting months are June and July; the April-May arrivals, however, are usually better, as the setting-in of the rainy season increases the difficulties of drying. The harvest in 1909 reached 3,000 tons, and is normally from 2000 to 5,000 tons yearly.
b) ~Esmeraldas~, similar to the foregoing, but of perceptibly inferior output, possesses only a very insignificant yield (about 150 tons a year), and this in spite of the cultivating capacities of the interior.
~Peru~, the most southerly producing land on the west coast can likewise only boast of a very insignificant yield, chiefly destined for home consumption.
~Brazil~, with its two great sorts for consumption, Bahia and Para cacao, and a yearly production of round 33,000 tons, has from the years 1906-1909 far outrun all other harvesting lands. Yet although it was able to increase this to 36,250 tons in 1911 it must nevertheless take second place among cultivating lands, the Gold Coast and Ecuador preceding.
A most important factor on the market is included under the specification ~Bahia~-cacao. Here again the shipping port has given its name to the cacao sort. It is harvested in three southerly situated districts, Ilheos, Belmonte, and Canavieiras, and is despatched to Bahia from harbours of the same name, in sailing vessel which sometimes ship a thousand sacks.
Ilheos despatches the inferior of the two principal varieties “Fair fermented” and “Superior fermented” that is, the first-named, and so furnishes two-thirds of the Bahia crop. The cacao areas in the district of Ilheos are situated on rather high and mountainous ground, where arresting atmospheric conditions often predominate. Also the absence of any waterway whatever renders it a necessity to despatch the cacao to Bahia on beasts of burden, which during the rainy season can scarcely find a footing on the beaten tracks. It is, then, the unfavourable atmospheric conditions, combined with a certain carelessness on the part of the planter in the preparing processes, which prejudices the otherwise excellent quality of the Bahia bean, and more especially in the months of June, July and August.
At this period it is no rarity to find from 10 to 20 percent of waste beans, and in general only the December-February months offer anything approaching a guarantee as to quality. But here no hard and fast rule can be adduced.