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occurs in the Sambirano region. During the rainy season, the river floods and deposits extremely
fertile alluvia along its river banks, which provides ideal conditions for many types of crops, especially cocoa.
All three varieties of cocoa grow throughout the year along the river banks of Sambirano, but with two peak seasons: June/July and July, October and /November. The river is divided in two parts, the upper Sambirano (upstream) and the lower Sambirano (downstream). <!-- Harvesting between from ... to ... is done along the upstream part and from ... to ... along the downstream part. -->
Malagasy cocoa has special characteristics due to the particular climate and soil along the Sambirano river. The cocoa harvest grown in the region contains contain about 10 percent % Criollo beans (cocoa grown elsewhere usually contains typically contain about five percent5% Criollo). Cocoa harvested from Sambirano is generally suited for high quality, low bitterness dark chocolate and is used by premium quality [[Madagascar Chocolate|Malagasy chocolate]] brands such as [[Chocolaterie Robert]] and [[Cinagra]].
== Further information ==