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MALAGOS,
Davao—The Philippines has the potential to earn $300
million in export revenues if existing monocropped lands
in the country are intercropped with cocoa, an official
of Mars Inc. said.
Peter
van Grinsven, cocoa sustainability field-research
manager of Mars Inc., said the estimated export revenue
is based on cocoa shipments totaling 200,000 metric tons
(MT), at a conservative cost of $1,500 per MT. Cocoa
beans’ current selling price average at $2,500 MT.
“There
is a huge market for cocoa. In
Asia alone, there is a big demand for fermented cocoa beans, but
there aren’t enough cocoa beans to supply the region’s
needs,” said van Grinsven at the sidelines of the launch
of Mars Cocoa Development Center (MCDC) here.
The Mars
official noted that China, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia
import about 220,000 MT of good-quality fermented beans
from
West Africa, where 70 percent of the world’s cocoa is currently
produced.
This,
van Grinsven said, presents an opportunity for the
Philippines.
Worldwide, the demand for various cocoa products grows
by 3 percent year-on-year. Despite the increase in world
demand, van Grinsven noted that leading cocoa producers
like West Africa could not produce enough to supply the
world’s appetite for cocoa, which has steadily increased
over the last decade.
Besides
new large markets for chocolate products like China and
India, there has been a shift in consumption patterns in
the established consumer markets to “dark chocolate,”
which has a higher-cocoa bean content.
This is
because recent studies suggest that cocoa flavanols, the
naturally occurring compounds in cocoa, have a
beneficial effect on cardiovascular health.
Mars
itself is keen on looking at other suppliers for cocoa
beans. Mars produces some of the world’s leading
chocolate brands such as M&M’s and Snickers. The company
is headquartered in
McLean,
Virginia,
and operates in more than 65 countries. It has 100
manufacturing facilities globally, including one in
China and one in Indonesia.
“We have
said this before; we are willing to buy the cocoa beans
produced by the Philippines,” said van Grinsven.
But
before the
Philippines
can take advantage of the business opportunities
presented by cocoa production, Mars officials said
Filipino farmers need to improve productivity, control
pest and diseases and produce good, quality beans
through fermenting.
“While
the Philippines currently produces 5,000 MT of cocoa, it
has the potential to produce 100,000 MT by 2020, making
it the second-biggest farm-export earner, next to
coconut,” said Howard Shapiro, Mars’ global director of
plant science and external research.
“However, a systematic and organized approach is
required to reach this level. Among other things, it is
imperative to demonstrate to farmers, the government,
donor institutions as well as the world market, that the
Philippines can indeed produce good-quality cocoa in
sustainable farming systems,” Shapiro stressed.
To
jump-start efforts to expand cocoa production, at least
in Mindanao, the company set up the MCDC to demonstrate
the positive aspects of cocoa cultivation and the
suitability of cocoa for the
Philippines.
Mars
launched the project in collaboration with Acdivoca,
CocoPhil and the Puentespina Farm. The center will
validate and implement, in a single location, local and
international “best practices” in all aspects of cocoa
farming, such as germ-plasm evaluation and breeding,
farm-rehabilitation methods and good agricultural
practices.
Van
Grinsven said the project is keen on encouraging farmers
with 1 hectares of land or less to go into cocoa
production.
Cocoa is a shade-tolerant crop that can be grown
successfully with other trees such as durian and
lanzones, besides coconut. |
