At the first Cocoa Symposium, international specialists and Puerto Rican cocoa growers met to evaluate the future of this sector, which in just a few years has achieved worldwide recognition.

Forest fires, torrential rains, droughts and extreme heat affect the countries that supply the archipelago, forcing an increase in local production, according to experts.

On an island that imports 85% of what it consumes, seeing the shelves full of products in supermarkets, despite the fact that the last natural disaster was a year ago with Hurricane Fiona, does not hide an irrefutable fact: Puerto Rico is at the mercy of the ravages of climate change in the countries that supply it with food, agreed multiple voices consulted by El Nuevo Día.

This was stated by Rueanna Haynes, an expert in climate governance who was on the island to present the keynote address at the Caribe Fest event, focused on the climate crisis.

Climate governance expert Rueanna Haynes warned that as part of the effects of global climate change, Caribbean islands such as Puerto Rico could see their coastal communities disappear, fresh water become too salty to be consumed, and temperatures so high that survival will be difficult or, in some cases, impossible.