There are three things to improve productivity in cacao – knowledge, hard work, and attitude.

This is according to Valentine D. Turtur, Executive Director of Cacao Industry Development Association of Mindanao, Inc. (CIDSAMI) as said during the Regional Cacao Industry Promotion and Investment Forum cum Planning workshop on June 22 in Butuan City.

Cacao is now a trending crop, being talked about everywhere in the world because of the declining production and its increasing demand in the global market.  According to recent studies, demand of the said commodity increased because of its known health benefits and the high global demand for chocolate.

The forum which was conducted by the Department of Agriculture-Caraga together with MinDA and the Department of Trade and Industry was aimed at strengthening the Cacao Industry by encouraging more investments and expansion of production areas. It was attended by 100 farmers, LGU representatives and other cacao industry stakeholders from all over the region.

DA Caraga Regional Director Edna M. Mabeza said that with the support of both the national and local governments as well as the private sectors, Caraga can have a viable and sustainable cacao industry.

“In time that there will already be enough production areas, processing facilities can then be set up so that there will be an added value to the products and command better prices”, Mabeza said.

During the forum, Director Turtur presented the National Cacao Industry Roadmap that target to develop at least 100,000 hectares with 50 million trees by 2022. Caraga’s challenge would be to plant 3,000 by that year.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority data in 2014, Caraga has only 701 hectares planted to cacao. With a ready market for its products, Turtur has assured the farmers a lucrative income if they engage in Cacao production.  “For the last five years, the price of cacao has been stable at P100-125 per kilo for dried beans and P28-32 per kilo for wet beans”, Turtur added.

Another Cacao stakeholder, Zenon Rachiel Alenton of Kennemer Food, Inc. (KFI) said that Caraga can contribute much for the targeted increase in cacao production considering its large available lands potential for growing cacao as well as potential lands for inter-cropping cacao with coconut. In addition, Caraga has also good soils and suitable climatic condition. Furthermore, Asia’s biggest cacao nursery operated by KFI, is located in the region, particularly in San Francisco, Agusan del Sur. It lies on a six-hectare land and has a capacity of 2.4M seedlings.

The Department of Agriculture has also identified Cacao as one of its priority High Value Crop commodity where support interventions can be accessed by interested farmer groups. (Vanesa P. Sanchez, DA13)