Cacao farmers urged to increase output

MANILA, Philippines - Local cacao farmers could increase their income by an additional P60,000 per hectare if they could boost their output to 100,000 metric tons (MT) by 2020, an indstry leader said.

Josephine Ramos, operations chief of the Cacao Foundation of the Philippines, said in a recent presentation during the 6th Agriculture and Fisheries Technology Forum and Product Exhibition held at the SM Mega Trade Hall in Mandaluyong City that given the right technology and government intervention, the Philippines would be able to export potentially at least 100,000 MT exportable cacao beans which would increase farmers’ income by P60,000 roughly more per hectare.

The challenge, she emphasized, is to ensure that high quality fermented beans are produced in large quantities.

A Cacao Roadmap of the Philippines, which is being pushed by cacao stakeholders, runs parallel to the domestic agenda of the Department of Agriculture-High Value Commercial Crops (DA-HVCC) and the Bureau of Agricultural Research’s Medium-Term Research and Development Plan.

The roadmap envisions cacao as an important industrial crop with huge potential in terms of domestic and export demand. It would cite pressing problems and concerns besetting the industry such as pests and diseases, lack of quality materials, development of value-adding products and the need for production technologies as targets for attention.

One strategy being developed under the Cacao Roadmap is to plant at least 50 million cacao trees in areas with initial cacao intervention likeNorthern Luzon, Bicol Region, Panay, Palawan, Southern and Western Mindanao, Zamboanga Peninsula, Aurora, Quezon Province and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). These areas could initially form part of the proposed Cacao Agribusiness Zones.

Ramos pointed out that the Philippines is relatively suitable for growing and producing quality cacao beans which could be a lucrative agri-business enterprise considering the strong domestic market and established access to export markets.

In her presentation, Ramos gave an overview/situationer of the cacao industry and its potential and impact to the farming community.

Cacao production in the Philippines reached an estimated 5,000 MT of cacao beans in 2007, and could possibly reach 100,000 MT in 2020.

This year, she said, world grindings of cocoa beans is projected at 3.6 million tons, reflecting an average annual increase of 2.1 percent.

Consumption, she added, continues to be concentrated in developed countries which are expected to account for 64 percent of world cocoa consumption.