Morphological variability and taxonomic affinity of cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) clones from Central Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) is native to the tropics and has been widely cultivated in South and Central America, Africa, Southeast Asia and some other tropical countries [1]. Between 2007 and 2011, Indonesia was ranked as the second top producers of cocoa beans in the world, after Côte d’Ivoire [2]. With the area of cultivation over 1.5 million hectares, cocoa bean is one of the important agricultural export products of Indonesia, and majority of its production was from smallholder farmers [3]. One of the largest cocoa production centers in Indonesia is Sulawesi Island, particularly in South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi.