Cocoa traders urged: Break into Europe
The European Union (EU) is encouraging Filipino Cocoa producers and cocoa-based product makers in the Philippines to intensify their presence in the European market.
EU Ambassador to the Philippines Franz Jessen said there is a huge potential for Cocoa products to make it big in the European market, and that this should be taken advantage of.
Jessen made this pronouncement after hearing the government's active support towards the development of cocoa farming in the Philippines, thus increasing the volume of cocoa production here.
Cocoa in particular is part of the over 6,000 products under the new European Union's Generalized System Preferences Plus (GSP+), which could avail of the zero tariff system. Without GSP+, Cacao products are automatically charged 43 percent tariff upon entering the 510 million European market.
The ambassador mentioned the active stance of Filipino entrepreneurs to develop its own cocoa based products, such as the Cebu-based brand Chocolate Chamber of Ralph Gourmet Inc.,
At present, the Philippines is still facing difficulties in meeting even the local consumption for cacao.
According to the Department of Agriculture (DA), the local average annual cacao consumption alone stands at 50,000 metric tons (MT) while local supply is only around 10,000 MT.
To supply the gap in the global demand, the local industry players should meet DA’s goal of increasing local production of 100,000 metric tons (MT) of dried cacao beans by 2022. This means the country needs to harvest from around 100 million cacao trees.
Under the National Cacao Roadmap, cacao farmers' income is expected to increase to P130,000 per hectare per year; increase export earnings by at least $250 million per year; and generate at least 150,000 jobs by 2022.
Early this year, the Department of Trade and industry (DTI) announced that the Cocoa of Excellence Program has selected cacao bean samples sent by Charita Puentespina of Puentespina Farms in Davao as part of the best 50 samples from a total of 166 samples received from 40 countries for the 2017 edition.
Cacao plants, which first made it to Philippine shores in 1670 through a Spanish friar, is currently one of the country’s key crops with a huge potential in the world market. The Philippines produces more than 10,000 metric tons of cacao per year and exports about $6 million worth to the international market. The country, however, imports more than $100 million worth of cacao from other coco a producing countries.