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The map

Where cacao grows in Panama

Hover or tap a province. Bocas del Toro dominates, but Criollo survives in the dry hills of Azuero, the Caribbean coast of Colón is replanting, and Chiriquí, Veraguas and Darién each have their own story.

Core regionEmergingLittle or no cacao

Boundaries: geoBoundaries (CC BY 4.0). Area figures: MIDA 2023–24 and Panama agricultural census.

A pile of yellow, orange and red cacao pods after harvest in Bocas del Toro

Bocas del Toro

The cacao heartland. Almost every bean in Panama is born here.

Cacao trees growing under taller shade trees in an agroforestry plot

Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé

Indigenous territory where cacao is a family crop under forest shade.

A farmer cutting a ripe cacao pod from a branch with a hooked pole

Costa Arriba de Colón

Afro-Caribbean coast replanting cacao a few hours from Panama City.

A pink-red cacao pod ripening on a branch

Chiriquí

Coffee country with a tree-to-bar cacao scene in the lowlands.

Tiny cacao flowers on a trunk beside a purple pod

Azuero: Herrera & Los Santos

The dry peninsula where almost pure Criollo trees were just found.

Green and yellow cacao pods hanging from a tree

Veraguas

Santa Fe highlands and a Caribbean coast with new plantings.

A hand touching a vanilla vine in a shaded forest garden

Darién & Panamá Este

Forest cacao on the frontier, grown by Emberá and campesino families.

A farmer cutting open cacao pods at a farm table

Panama City & the Pacific

Where the bars are made, tasted and sold, plus small plots in Capira and Coclé.