Not only is cacao the basic ingredient in the world’s favorite confection, chocolate, but it provides a livelihood for over 6.5 million farmers in Africa, South America and Asia and ranks as one of the top ten agriculture commodities in the world. Historically, cocoa production has been plagued by serious losses due to pests and diseases. The release of the cacao genome sequence will provide researchers with access to the latest genomic tools, enabling more efficient research and accelerating the breeding process, thereby expediting the release of superior cacao cultivars. The sequenced genotype, Matina 1-6, is representative of the genetic background most commonly found in the cacao producing countries, enabling results to be applied immediately and broadly to current commercial cultivars.  Matina 1-6 is highly homozygous which greatly reduces the complexity of the sequence assembly process. While the sequence provided is a preliminary release, it already covers 92% of the genome, with approximately 35,000 genes. We will continue to refine the assembly and annotation, working toward a complete finished sequence. Updates will be made available via the main project website.