Davao City is PH chocolate, cacao production capital

The House of Representatives has declared Davao City the country’s chocolate and cacao production capital for putting the Philippines in the class of the world’s best and tastiest chocolate.

With 220 members voting in the affirmative, the House approved on third and final reading House Bill 7460 giving President Duterte’s city national recognition as the choco

late and cacao production capital of the Philippines.

Authored by Deputy Speaker and Abono Partylist Rep. Conrado M. Estrella III, HB 7460 will be sent to the Senate for its approval.

“Davao City-based Malagos Chocolate brought for the country the honor of winning second place in the international chocolate competition conducted in 2017 by the Academy of Chocolate in London,” revealed Estrella.

“To date, Malagos has already won seven major international awards for its chocolate products, thereby earning for the country international recognition as a world class chocolate producer,” he said.

By giving Davao City the recognition of being the chocolate and cacao production capital, it is expected that people involved in the propagation of cacao and the production of quality chocolates will continue to work harder to ensure that they will live up to expectations.

According to Estrella, Davao City and the provinces of Davao del Norte,

Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley produce at least 81 percent of the country’s total production of cacao, the main ingredient for making chocolate.

Following the announcement of the US Department of Agriculture that the global demand for cacao will have a shortfall of at least one million metric tons by the end of 2020, local producers have accepted the “Philippine Cacao Challenge” by committing the production of 100,000 MTs before 2021.

Estrella, who represents an agriculture-based partylist group, said its neighboring provinces have given the Philippines a “competitive advantage in high quality chocolate and cacao production in the Asian region.”

“As our cacao farmers strive hard to give the country a lofty standing in the highly competitive worldwide chocolate production market, they also have opened a new frontier for higher trade and economic productivity in the country,” the Pangasinense solon said.