AGRICULTURA E PESCA

Cocoa activity generates over 400 thousand jobs in Pará

In addition to the job positions that the segment provides, the chain registers almost 33 thousand producers. According to Sedap, on average, a thousand new cocoa farmers join the production chain each year.

By Rose Barbosa (SEDAP)

20/09/2025 08h00

For ten years, Carmem Célia Souza has been working in the activity of breaking the cocoa shell to separate the beans that will be used. It is through this activity that she and her family survive and keep up with household expenses. The worker, who lives in Altamira, in southeastern Pará, is part of a segment that generated over 400 thousand direct and indirect jobs in Pará territory last year, according to data compiled by the Planning and Statistics Center of the State Department of Agricultural Development and Fisheries (Sedap).

Throughout the State, the cocoa segment generated 320,360 direct jobs and 80,090 indirect jobs last year. The survey by Sedap – which used data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the Executive Commission of the Cocoa Crop Plan (Ceplac) as sources – also shows that the number of cocoa farmers in Pará reached almost 33 thousand (more precisely, 32,700).

For worker Carmen Souza, being part of such a relevant chain as cocoa is very important, not only for economic reasons but also cultural ones, as she interacts daily with a fruit that has practically become a symbol of the Transamazon (BR-230 highway, which extends through the municipalities that are hubs in cocoa production, such as Altamira). With a machete, she separates the seeds from the pulp. Per day, she reported that, along with the group hired by the owner of the farm where she works, she fills up to 100 cans with cocoa beans. "Cocoa is our means of survival; we learned through practice from an early age," she said.

Producer - At the other end of the cocoa activity is the producer. Among the more than 32 thousand identified in Pará soil is Moisés Covre, whose property of 140 hectares is located at Km-8 of BR-230 (towards Altamira-Anapu). There are 25 thousand cocoa trees planted in an Agroforestry System (SAF) – when cocoa is cultivated alongside other species for shading, such as açaí, as reported by the owner. According to him, there are seven thousand cocoa trees planted together with açaí.

The cultivation of cocoa was a legacy left by Moisés' father, who started the activity in Altamira in 2006. "We continue my father's legacy. It's a great business. Before, we did it to pay expenses, but now it has improved a lot," he noted. He explains that he does not face difficulties in recruiting labor and follows the same system adopted by his father, with hired employees who are paid for their services. "We don't use sharecroppers, but employees. We have no difficulties in getting labor, as it is very close to the road, well located, which makes it easier," he observes.

Pará registers one producer for every five hectares of land cultivated with cocoa, as reported by statistician and professor Ulisses Barata Silva, responsible for the survey of Nuplan at Sedap. This indicator, due to its consistency and representativeness in the regional productive dynamics, has been extrapolated to other States in the Legal Amazon with cocoa production, allowing aggregated estimates of productive occupation and supporting comparative analyses of land structure and the socioeconomic profile of producers in the region.

According to Silva, the extrapolation is justified by Pará's high participation in regional production — around 95% — and the absence of detailed structural data in other States, making it a valid approximation for preliminary analytical purposes. Between 2022 and 2024, there is a gradual expansion of cocoa cultivation in the Legal Amazon, driven mainly by Pará's performance: the harvested area in the State increased from 152,837 hectares in 2022 to 163,405 hectares in 2024, representing a cumulative growth of 6.91%. In 2024, cocoa production recorded a volume of 137,455 thousand tons, with an average production yield (kg/ha) of 841 kg/ha, as explained by the coordinator of the Planning and Statistics Center of Sedap, Maria de Lourdes Minssen.

"This behavior reinforces the importance of cocoa cultivation as a vector for productive occupation and income generation in the region, especially among small producers who operate in agroforestry systems," analyzes the coordinator of Nuplan at Sedap.

Generator of jobs and income

Because it is still done manually, the cocoa production chain in Pará is an important job generator, as evaluated by the coordinator of Procacau at Sedap, Ivaldo Santana. Of the more than 320 thousand direct jobs – such as the activity of breaking the cocoa shell or directly caring for the crop – there are more than 80 thousand indirect jobs, which operate in activities such as the trade of fertilizers, irrigation systems, and transportation. "It is a chain that boosts the issue of employment in the countryside. This is very important for our State and for cocoa production. The trend is only to grow. Currently, there is a lot of demand for seeds, due to the price of cocoa, which is in the range of R$ 40 to R$ 45 per kilo. This price has tripled compared to three or four years ago. Many producers are looking for areas and seeds to plant cocoa," Santana noted.

Every year, around a thousand new producers and an average of 8 thousand to 10 thousand new hectares are incorporated into the chain, according to the coordinator of Procacau. "This price will remain for a few more years, and this chain will grow even more in our State," Santana estimated.

Importance of partnerships

Based on data consolidated by institutions such as Sedap, the Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Company (Emater), the Executive Commission of the Cocoa Crop Plan (Ceplac), and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), it was possible to estimate the total number of producers and jobs generated in cocoa cultivation in Pará based on data from IBGE and Municipal Agricultural Production (PAM).

In the Transamazon, Ceplac is the federal government agency linked to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa), responsible for monitoring cocoa culture (assistance, technical guidance, and research) and productive areas such as that of Moisés Covre.

The agency has an experimental station in Medicilândia, which produces hybrid cocoa seeds. The agricultural activities agent of Ceplac in the Transamazon, Alino Zavarise Bis, said that the seeds are distributed free of charge to producers, which also impacts job generation. The federal institution, as he emphasized, has a strong partnership with Sedap. "The state government helps us a lot in the production of hybrid seeds to be distributed to producers; 80% of the cocoa planted in the Transamazon comes from hybrid seeds from Ceplac, and the region is responsible for 85% of the cocoa production in the state of Pará," he explained.

According to Alino, the chocolate from the Transamazon has a higher fat content and a higher melting point because it is made from cocoa that is a mix of different genetic material varieties. "These are intrinsic characteristics that industries value highly. Since we are on the equator line, with greater solar radiation incidence, it causes the plant to produce more and develop these characteristics with this differential," he said.

Cocoa in numbers* data related to the year 2024 (State of Pará)