Davao City to position as Chocolate Capital of PH
“DAVAO City as Chocolate Capital of the Philippines.”
Mayor Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio bared this plan of making the city’s cacao industry to be globally competitive during her first State of the City Address on September 12, 2017.
“It will provide an opportunity for the small entrepreneurs, marginal farmers, upland farmers, and indigenous people of Davao City to be players in the cacao and chocolate industry by producing globally competitive quality chocolates,” Duterte-Carpio said.
In her message, Duterte-Carpio highlighted the assistance from Department of AgriculturePhilippine Rural Development Project which has poured in P9.05-million assistance as support to the city’s cacao farmers.
“We have an ongoing implementation of the Cacao Production and Marketing of Dry Fermented Beans, a subproject under the Philippine Rural Development Project-Investment in Rural Enterprise and Agriculture and Fisheries Productivity (PRDP-IREAP) with Subasta Integrated Multi-Purpose Cooperative (SIMPC),” she said.
This project has 16 cluster members from Calinan, Tugbok, Baguio, and Marilog Districts with a total of 227 recipients, which includes 97 members of the Indigenous Peoples group, she added.
DA-PRDP is a six-year national government platform for inclusive, valuechain oriented, and climate resilient agriculture and fisheries sector.
“We envision a formidable agricultural sector that is not weather dependent and is resilient to climate change. We would like our farmers to become business-oriented partners. We want to see an end to the slavery of farmers by financiers,” said Duterte-Carpio.
DA Davao Region Director Ricardo M. Oñate, Jr. said that cacao is one of the region’s champion commodity as the region supplies 80% of the country’s cacao production.
“We have numerous assistance to the cacao industry already at the past and in the present. Our partnership project with the city government in Subasta, Calinan amounts to a total fund of P26-million including the equity share of the LGU and the farmers associations,” said Oñate who is also the PRDP Mindanao Director.
“It will not be farfetched that the city can become the Chocolate Capital of the Philippines because we have the potential to be one. For instance, our Davaobased chocolate producer – Malagos Chocolate, has received numerous recognition abroad for producing the world class dark chocolate,” said City Planning and Development Office chief Ivan Cortez in a separate interview.