Dried but not smoked
There are two reasons why some of Cameroon's cocoa farmers are turning away from their cement ovens for drying beans; their tendency to crack and allow smoke into contact with the beans, and their heavy demand for fuelwood. Smoky beans fetch lower prices, incentive enough for them to turn to the Samoa dryer. This has been in use for decades in some regions but is now becoming popular in South West Province when sun drying is impractical.
At the end of fermentation, the moisture content of cocoa beans is about 55% and this must be
reduced to 6 to 7% for safe storage.
The drying process is not simply a matter of losing moisture:
chemical changes that take place inside the bean during fermentation continue during drying until
activation of enzymes is halted.
The old cement ovens work on the principle of a cement drying platform under which a fire is lit. These can take four truckloads of wet cocoa beans, the equivalent to 7 bags when dry. With neither furnace nor chimney, the heat cracks the cement deck allowing smoke on to the drying beans. To save wood and prevent smoke damage, development and forest conservation organizations are promoting the construction of Samoa ovens. These which consist of a furnace in which the fire is lit, a steel tunnel of about 50 cm in circumference, through which heat from the fire is transmitted underneath the drying deck, a chimney to carry the smoke a safe distance from the beans, and a netted drying deck and mat on which the wet cocoa beans are spread.
After construction, the management of Samoa ovens is placed under a village committee, each user of the oven agreeing to pay a small sum towards its maintenance. As farmers struggle to meet the escalating cost of chemical treatments for pests and diseases, a relatively simple means of improving the quality and price of the final product is proving very attractive.
