By Othel V. Campos
Multinational confectionery giant Masterfoods USA is looking at the possibility of partly supplying the Philippines cacao bean requirements, the Cocoa Foundation of the Phils. said yesterday.
“Masterfoods has been sending signals that it would want to seek the cooperation of local cacao farmers and traders to buy cacao beans for its global operations,” said Foundation field manager Josephine Ramos.
Masterfoods is the famous maker of Mars, Milky Way, M&M’s, Twix and Snickers confectioneries, as well as pet foods such as the well-known Whiskas, Chappy and Pedigree brands, human foods including Uncle Ben’s and nonconfectionery snack foods including Combos.
Based on the 10-year cocoa roadmap developed by the foundation and the Department of Agriculture, a private sector-led export program will help increase the $439.7 million worth of local cacao beans production by $242.1 million.
Ramos said about $185 million more in foreign exchange income would add up to the estimated production value once the country learned to export processed cacao products such as cocoa butter.
The 10-year cocoa roadmap program is expected to generate about $141.75 million earnings from full-time on-farm jobs.
The agriculture department will implement the program with the assistance of the United States Department of Agriculture, the Agricultural Cooperative Development International and Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance and the Sustainable Cocoa Enterprise Solutions for Smallholders.
http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=business04_june29_2006
No comments:
Post a Comment