By MELODY M. AGUIBA
International chocolate makers M&M and Nestlé are seeking a supply agreement for cocoa beans from the Philippines which can become enormous export markets that should prop up farmers to raise production and upgrade quality.
"There’s a huge income opportunity in the cocoa market. Mars (maker of M&M) is asking us to sell to them. But we can’t export because we don’t have the volume, and we can’t meet the quality," Patricia Limpe, Philippine Cocoa Foundation (PCF) vice president said in a press briefing.
Despite having the edge in its capability to ferment the beans over other exporters, the Philippines has lagged behind its Asian neighbors in the cacao export market with an inconsistent cocoa program in the past.
But a PCF program is targeting to eat up into at least five percent of a 3.1 million-hectare coconut land through cacao intercropping so as to become a cocoa exporter in 10 years.
"The Philippines has an edge because we know the process, we know how to ferment. Indonesia is exporting only washed beans. If we can export direct to Mars and Nestlé, that will be very good because we don’t have to go through trading in New York and London futures exchange," she said.
The Philippines can actually fill up its local cacao bean requirement which it imports at an average (from 2000 to 2004) of 33,572 metric tons (MT) yearly valued at $50.451 million.
"Maybe in the next five years, with the Cordillera planting, we’ll have our own local supply, and in the next 10 years we can export," Limpe, also Antonio Pueo cooking chocolate producer, told the Philippine Agricultural Journalists briefing.
Cocoa beans are of good quality if these are fermented and are graded according to size. Average price in the world market in the last five years was at $1,300 per MT.
Josephine Ramos, PCF technical assistance chief, said inquiring chocolate makers have big markets as Nestle (Swiss) has cocoa bean demand of 350,000 MT; Mars, 320,000 MT; Hershey (US), 90,000; and Cadbury, 8,000 MT.
Incremental growth of this cocoa bean demand is at 3.8 percent yearly or 60,000 to 90,000 MT per year.
From Asia alone, a ready market of at least 100,000 MT await cocoa bean producers consisting of 160,000 MT from Malaysia; 70,000 MT, Japan; 30,000 MT, China; and 200,000 MT, Singapore.
Cocoa is ideally planted with coconut under an "agro-ecological perspective."
It can be intercropped with coconut land at 500 to 700 cocoa trees per hectare. Likewise encouraging with cocoa intercropping is its fertilization effect on coconut as evidenced by high yields in inter-cropped farms.
Cocoa trees also enhance pest and disease management, deterring insects from infesting a farm and these also improve soil conservation.
PCF targets to plant cocoa on 10,000 hectares in Cordillera provinces (Apayao, Kalinga), Cagayan, Quirino, and Isabela; 20,000 hectares in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon, and Bicol; 10,000 hectares in Palawan, eastern and western Visayas; and 20,000 hectares in Zamboanga, Basilan, Davao Sur, Norte, and Oriental.
From only 6,750 MT in 2005, production is targeted to grow to 13,000 MT by 2008; 32,250 MT by 2010; 62,500 MT by 2012; and to 70,000 MT by 2014.
This will create cocoa bean production value of $438.7 million in 10 years; a value of full time on-farm employment of
R141.75 million; cocoa bean export value of $243.1 million, and additional foreign exchange income of $185 million from cocoa product export.
Support services eyed by PCF and the Department of Agriculture for cacao planting include national quality standard for cacao beans and processed products, post-harvest centers accreditation, planting materials certification, research, development, and extension; infrastructure and transport support; and organization of cacao producers.
