VALUE-ADDED CACAO PRODUCT FOR A BETTER LIFE TO FARMERS
The Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP), the World Bank (WB) and the European Union (EU) visited the chocolate processing project of I-REAP in San Francisco, Panabo City, Davao del Norte as part of the 15th WB Implementation Support Mission to the PRDP.
During the consultation, the WB headed by task team leader Mio Takada and the EU head of Cooperation, Christoph Wagner were impressed on how the Rehoboth Agriculture Cooperative (RACO) progressed in their chocolate processing and marketing ventures.
“Some of the goals of the chocolate processing project has already been achieved which is to organize the farmers and going into value addition like the chocolate nibs and the tablea,” said Dina Umali-Deininger, the WB Agriculture Practice Manager Sustainable Development in East Asia and Pacific Region.
The value addition is really where the earnings of the farmers become higher than just selling beans. “And it’s really what we want to do – to help the small farmers earn a better income and have a better life,” added Dina Umali-Deininger.
RACO general manager Lolita Pinoon, said that they are buying cacao fermented beans at P130 to P150 per kilo from their farmer-members.
The intervention from PRDP worth P20 million is an upscaling of Cacao Chocolate processing and marketing that aimed to produce high quality chocolate products both for export and local market.
RACO was provided with a chocolate processing building, machineries and equipment, delivery vehicle, and working capital.
Joining the subproject visit were representatives from the DA-PRDP National Project Coordination Office (NPCO), Project Support Office (PSO) Mindanao, and Regional Project Coordination Office (RPCO) XI and the provincial and local government unit officials of the province of Davao del Norte and Panabo City.
Davao del Norte Provincial Governor Edwin Jubahib hoped that the consultation with theWB and the EU development partners will have a positive result for more PRDP projects to come in the province. (Janelle T. Flores, InfoACE 11)
