Successful early cultivation of tree commodities in exotic locations was due in part to the escape of crops from the pests and diseases that co-evolved with them in their centres of origin (Clement, 2004). However, the founder germplasm in major production centres was often introduced before much was known about genetic variation in the crops, so was often suboptimal in performance (Mohan Jain and Priyadarshan, 2009). With the importance of the production of these commodities for smallholders, further investments in genetic improvement, in the delivery of improved cultivars, and in better farm management, have wide benefits (Mohan Jain and Priyadarshan, 2009). Highly geneticallyvariable landrace and wild stands found outside major production centres therefore have an important role to play in future tree commodity commodity crop development, especially with the availability and potential of modern ‘genomic’ breeding techniques (see, e.g., Argout et al., 2011 for cocoa’s draft genome), and the conservation of these genetic resources in forest, farmland and other locations is therefore essential.