Growing cocoa is a valuable industry for smallholder farmers in Samoa, and more generally provides a significant national social and economic benefit. The climate of Samoa is currently suitable for growing cocoa, although there are various climate impacts on the industry, including: periodic flooding that damages farms; tropical cyclones, noting that the main impact is the flooding (so as connected to the first risk) while wind speed has little negative impact; heavy rainfall that damages flowers and subsequent levels of fruiting on the trees, and also causes damaging (‘black pod’) fungal disease outbreaks – annual rainfall and associated humidity is often high enough for the fungal outbreaks to be severe, and heavy rainfall and humidity promotes the spread of fungus between cocoa pods.
