20/07/2026
Very interesting business history about Hershey’s investment in Belize Chocolate, which still thrives today!!
CHOCOLATE! Belize has the best!
The story of Hershey Chocolate in Belize is one of the biggest “what if?” stories in Belize’s agricultural history. For a brief period, Hershey believed Belize could become one of its major cocoa-producing regions. The project transformed hundreds of farmers’ lives before collapsing due to forces far beyond Belize’s control.
Why Hershey came to Belize
In the 1970s, the world cocoa market became extremely volatile. Poor harvests in West Africa, where most of the world’s cocoa is grown, sent cocoa prices soaring. Hershey, which traditionally bought cocoa from international traders, began looking for ways to secure its own supply. Belize stood out because it had:
* An ideal tropical climate.
* Rich soils.
* Political stability.
* A centuries-old Maya tradition of growing cacao.
* Close proximity to the United States.
Hummingbird Hershey
Hershey purchased farmland along the Hummingbird Highway in central Belize during the late 1970s.
What began as roughly 500 acres eventually expanded to around 1,800 acres. The operation became known locally as Hummingbird Hershey.
The company built:
* Experimental cacao plantations.
* Fermentation facilities.
* Drying facilities.
* Collection centers.
Unlike simply growing cocoa themselves, Hershey wanted Belizean farmers to become commercial cocoa producers.
The Belize Accelerated Cacao Production Project
From 1984 through 1987, Hershey partnered with:
* Belize’s Ministry of Agriculture
* USAID
* Pan American Development Foundation
Together they launched the Belize Accelerated Cacao Production Project.
The program:
* Distributed thousands of improved cacao seedlings.
* Trained farmers in pruning and disease control.
* Introduced better fermentation techniques.
* Guaranteed a market for cocoa.
* Paid farmers competitive prices.
For many Maya farmers in southern Belize, this was the first dependable cash crop they had ever grown.
The boom
Hundreds of farmers throughout Toledo planted cacao.
Families invested years into establishing orchards because cacao trees take several years before producing commercially.
The expectation was that Belize was building an entirely new export industry.
Many believed cocoa would become one of Belize’s largest agricultural exports.
Then everything changed
International cocoa prices collapsed.
Prices fell from roughly US$1.00 per pound to under US$0.30 per pound in just a few years. Once prices crashed, it became much cheaper for Hershey to buy cocoa on the global market than to continue operating plantations and extension programs in Belize.
Economically, Belize simply couldn’t compete with huge producers like:
* Côte d’Ivoire
* Ghana
* Nigeria
* Brazil
Hershey leaves Belize
Hershey shut down its Belize cocoa operations.
The consequences were severe:
* Farmers lost their guaranteed buyer.
* Thousands of young cacao trees suddenly had little commercial value.
* Many orchards were abandoned.
* Others were bulldozed.
Across the Hummingbird Highway and southern Belize, many former cacao farms were replanted with citrus, particularly oranges and grapefruit, which offered a more stable income.
Richard Burns and the legacy
One interesting outcome came from Richard Burns, who had managed the Hershey operation in Belize.
Drawing on the expertise gained during those years, he launched one of Belize’s first modern chocolate companies, Food of the Gods (Theobroma), in the late 1990s. Although the company was relatively short-lived, it helped demonstrate that Belize could produce finished chocolate, not just raw cocoa.
Belize’s chocolate renaissance
While Hershey left, cacao never completely disappeared.
The Toledo Cacao Growers Association (TCGA) stepped in to organize farmers and focus on premium organic cacao instead of commodity production.
Later, companies such as:
* Belize Chocolate Company
* Moho Chocolate
* Cotton Tree Chocolate
* Ixcacao
* Maya Mountain Cacao
helped establish Belize as a producer of fine-flavor, single-origin chocolate rather than bulk industrial cocoa.
The irony
Many historians consider Hershey’s Belize venture a failure from a corporate perspective, but it unintentionally laid the groundwork for today’s premium chocolate industry.
The training, improved genetics, fermentation knowledge, and farming techniques introduced during the Hershey years helped create the expertise that Belize’s artisanal chocolate makers still rely on today.
Today, Belize produces only a tiny fraction of the world’s cocoa, but it is recognized internationally for its high-quality fine-flavor cacao, with beans sought after by specialty chocolate makers around the world.
For Belize, the Hershey era remains a fascinating chapter. It was a bold experiment that promised to turn the country into a major cocoa exporter. The dream ended when world markets shifted, but the knowledge it left behind helped spark the country’s modern reputation as one of the world’s boutique chocolate destinations.
