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'''Sambirano is an area in the north west northwest of Madagascar, which is especially known for the production of high quality cocoa cacao, also known as the "green gold" of Sambirano. The name also refers to the Sambirano Valley as well as the [[Sambirano River that flows ]] which runs from the foothills of the [[Tsaratanana Massif]] into the Ampasindava Bay where it joins with the Ramena riverRiver, south of [[Ambanja]].'''

<googlemap version="0.9" lat="-13.688688" lon="48.450737" type="satellite" zoom="12" controls="large">-13.687854, 48.452454Sambirano River, where it runs through [[AmbanjaFile:Sambirano 091.jpg|600px]]</googlemap>

Due to the proximity of the Tsaratanana mountain range and trade winds, a particular microclimatemicro-climate occurs in the Sambirano region. During the rainy season, the river floods and deposits extremelyfertile alluvia along its river banks, which provides providing ideal conditions for many types of crops, especially cocoacacao.All three varieties of cooca grow throughout the year along the river banks of Sambirano, but with two peak seasons: Juneand 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 {| class="imageTable"|-|colspan="3" | [[File:Sambirano river101. The cocoa harvest grown in the region contains about 10 percent Criollo beans (cocoa grown elsewhere usually contains about five percent). Cocoa harvested from Sambirano is generally suited for high quality, low bitterness dark chocolate and is used by premium quality jpg|600px]]|-|[[Madagascar ChocolateFile:Sambirano 102.jpg|Malagasy chocolate196px]] brands such as |align="center"|[[Chocolaterie RobertFile:Sambirano 103.jpg|196px]] and |align="right"|[[CinagraFile:Sambirano 104.jpg|196px]].|}