American choco giant assures ready market for RP cacao

By Jennifer A. Ng
Reporter

UNITED States-based conglomerate Mars Inc. said there is a ready market for cacao beans from the Philippines if local producers can supply the increasing needs of the chocolate industry.
           
Peter van Grinsven, manager of the Cocoa Sustainability Field Research of Mars Inc., said the chocolate industry basically requires a reliable and sustainable supply of cocoa—the byproduct of cacao beans.
           
"The industry wants a reliable and sustainable supply of suitable cocoa. The industry will be a ready market," said van Grinsven who attended the launching of the second phase of the Success Alliance Philippines at the Department of Agriculture (DA) last week.
           
The Mars executive  said the Philippines has the potential to earn up to $150 million in cocoa exports annually if it could expand its existing production area for cacao.
           
Success Alliance 2 is a three-year program aimed at improving cocoa production in the country through a $2.8-million financing from the United States Agency for International Development.  Other sponsors of the project are the US Department of Agriculture, ACDI/VOCA, Philippine Cocoa Foundation World Cocoa Foundation and Masterfoods.
           
The project seeks to train 17,000 Filipino cacao farmers and is seen as a boost to the government's 10-year "cacao roadmap."
           
Van Grinsven said that if the country can implement its roadmap, particularly the goal of developing additional 60,000 hectares for cacao production, the Philippines could produce up to 100,000 metric tons (MT) of cacao beans.
           
Currently, the country produces only about 6,750 MT of cacao beans from less than 10,000 hectares of agricultural lands, mostly in Davao provinces, each year.
           
Edward David, president of the Cocoa Foundation, said the country has a large domestic market for cacao. The Philippines was, in fact, the first Asian country to plant cacao and develop its cocoa industry.
           
But the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program led to the demise of many cacao plantations in the 1990s, according to industry players.
           
The country requires about 13,000 MT of cacao beans each year, although its production peak is only about 7,000 MT annually. 
           
The Philippines imports more than half of its requirement for cacao beans from Indonesia and cocoa powder from Singapore.
           
The imports are processed and are re-exported to Malaysia, South Korea, and the US in the form of cocoa butter, cocoa paste and cocoa beans.

 Business Mirror
October 30, 2006
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/eco02.php