By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
It is always a source of pride to drink coffee grown from your own backyard, or from your own region. Similarly, when you sip your chocolate prepared from your own cacao trees, it gives you a great smile of satisfaction.
That is happening of course in the Cordillera. In CAR, coffee raising had been way much longer than cacao planting, albeit in only a few specific areas like Sagada and parts of Benguet for the Arabica type, and Tabuk, Kalinga for the Robusta type.
Cacao? It was for the most part, just a curiosity crop earlier.
Now, both coffee and cacao are parts of sunrise industries. This recognition is very evident in many summits organized for these crops for local stakeholders.
It is no surprise that CAR is considered a major coffee producer in the country when it comes to Arabica coffee production. Thanks largely to the initial efforts of BSU, and Prof Ben Dimas, a retiree from the same university, in spreading the culture of coffee growing. The subsequent push from the DA and even from DTI, CHED, LGUs, and other government and private agencies further elevated the pedestal where coffee is now perched today in the region, and in the country.
Some progress had been attained for the industry. For instance, packaging of product improved a lot, there are now more coffee kiosks in many strategic places, and products using coffee or how they are prepared have diversified.
Along the way, problems expectedly arose. Such problems include: continued accessibility of seedlings of the best strains locally adaptable, relatively low production, technical assistance, marketing and price support, and the presence of competing coffee bean processing facilities (underutilized in the process) in different municipalities.
Unless more trees are planted, and more berries are produced, the processing facilities will continue to compete for the inadequate volume of produce available—which is happening at present. This makes the processing facilities yearning to be used more. Maybe the pieces of equipment in place or to be procured, can be configured to be multi-purpose machines?
For cacao, there only two summits so far held in CAR. The enthusiasm of entrepreneurs to delve into cacao bean processing is definitely there, apparently though, this is not matched by the farmers’ own keenness to go into actual cacao planting. This is a challenge that must be faced headlong.
At least three farmers have asked me where they could buy cacao seedlings. I pointed them to the Bureau of Plant Industry (or whatever it is called now). Unfortunately, they didn’t find the needed seedlings there, probably out of stock.
Philippine chocolate had already gained traction in the world market. Davao, which produce 80% of our total cacao bean production, had won international acclaim through its Malagos chocolates. There are other brands of chocolate developed in Davao, some of them are also known already.
Then came the “Sikwate” or tsokolate de batirol developed or popularized by the chocolate Queen of Cebu, Raquel Toquero-Choa.
Count now the CAR region as producer of tablea and chocolate. Producers are found in several towns of Benguet, Apayao, Kalinga, Abra, Mountain Province and Ifugao. After tasting some of their products, I can say that we are on the path to the chocolate map.
If there is a chocolate queen in Cebu, we have also a chocolate queen of Benguet or Baguio. She is Eva Ritchelle Padua, the CEO of Dulche Chocolate. She is the developer of the iconic Dulche chocolate, and many more. Aside from developing many chocolate-based products, she is also actively helping cacao farmers to succeed in their actual production efforts.
For her distinguished cacao-related accomplishments, she has already received several prestigious national and international awards. Am just wondering, why I have not yet heard any relevant award given by Baguio City or Benguet province. For one, she has her factory in Baguio, has her house of Dulche Chocolate is in Irisan, and has several outlets in the city itself. Really wondering Baguio!**
