MANILA – The Department of Agriculture (DA) of the Philippines is supporting the “mocha” trend with a P192 million budget for coffee and the implementation of Cacao Agribusiness Zones Development (CAZD) to boost coffee and cocoa production.
DA is partnering with Nestle Philippines in putting up a mother plant garden in Cagayan Valley as part of a coffee roadmap, a statement from the DA said.
The nursery will produce 200,000 Robusta coffee seedlings per year through the Cagayan Valley Upland Research Outreach Station in Aglipay, Quirino.
For cocoa, the CAZD is establishing five agribusiness zones in Davao City, Compostela Valley, Zamboanga del Norte, Palawan and Camarines Sur.
The Philippines apparently has to embrace the mocha trend as the craze on coffee as a social drink has turned to more mixtures of coffee with different flavors.
This is particularly true with coffee mixed with chocolate as a cocoa product or known as mocha.
“The vision of Sec. (Proceso) Alcala is for us to come up with the best possible strategies to make the country’s coffee and cacao industries competitive. So that these commodities can contribute to food security.” said Dr. Teodoro S. Solsoloy, DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) assistant director.;BAR has just supported a research and development (R&D) forum for coffee and cacao of the Options Inc. to encourage investments in the crops which the country heavily imports.
The country imports some 100,000 metric tons (MT) of coffee beans worth P10 billion annually mainly from Vietnam.
It imports around 20,000 MT of cocoa beans from big African cocoa producers (Nigeria, Ivory Coast) costing a yearly average of $42 million. This import value excludes chocolate products and consumables, said Options Inc. Managing Director Josephine V. Ramos.
The brisk coffee and cocoa consumption growth is prompting the industry to encourage local production.
The Philippines is among the few countries in the world that can grow coffee and cacao with its geographical position around the equator.
Coffee is a priority R&D crop under BAR’s 2011-2016 R&D, and Extension (RDE) Program, BAR Director Nicomedes P. Eleazar said.
The program is funding improvement of the facilities of the National Coffee RDE based in the Cavite State University in Indang, Cavite.
CADZ is a partnership of DA with the Cocoa Foundation of the Philippines (CocoaPhil).
Source Philippine Information Agency
