Foreign traders see Davao as big global cocoa exporter

FOREIGN cocoa buyers and traders are optimistic that the port city of Davao will soon become one of the world's key suppliers of cacao beans.

"The Philippines has a huge potential to expand its production of cacao beans especially in the Davao region, which has the best areas and ideal conditions for cacao farms to thrive," said Dr. Smilja Lambert, a Norwegian consultant with Mars Cocoa Inc., one of the world's biggest buyers of cocoa.

Among Asian countries, the Philippines has the smallest production of cacao beans at 5,000 metric tons of cacao beans last year. Its highest production was in 1980 with 20,000 tons and 1990 with 35,000 tons, declining over the years as farmers abandoned cacao farming for other more profitable crops.

Lambert said Asia has a large cocoa processing industry but only a small volume of fermented cacao beans are being produced by countries in the region.

"There are so many cocoa processing centers in Asia but hardly enough cacao beans are available to process," she said.

Indonesia has the biggest cocoa production at 600,000 tons last year followed by Papua new Guinea at 50,000 tons and Malaysia at 17,000 tons. Trailing behind, according to Lambert, were India at 7,000 tons, the Philippines at 5,000 tons and Vietnam at 1,000 tons.

Japan, China, Malaysia, and Indonesia, which have big cocoa processing centers, imported a total of 220,000 metric tons of raw cacao fermented beans last year from Ivory Coast, West Africa, the world's biggest producer of cacao beans.

The Philippines, according to the Marsman consultant, has the capability and the best conditions to become a major cocoa producer, supplying 100,000 metric tons to the world market by the year 2020.

"That's the reason why we're here in Davao to help as many farmers as possible to plant as many cacao trees now to hit our production target ten years from now," Lambert said.

Mars Cocoa want to see the Philippines, starting in Davao, develop cacao farm areas with a target total of 50 million cacao trees ten years from now, enough to produce 100,000 tons of cacao beans, according to Lambert.

(Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/business/2011/05/04/foreign-traders-see-davao-big-global-cocoa-exporter-153419)