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MARS
Inc. is encouraging Filipino farmers to plant more cacao
to take advantage of the appreciation of the price of
cocoa beans in the world market.
Dr.
Smilja Lambert, research manager of Mars in the
Asia-Pacific, said in a forum held at the Department of
Agriculture Wednesday that world prices of cocoa went up
to an average of $3,200 metric ton (MT) last month from
$2,500 per MT in April.
“Cocoa
futures reached an all-time high of $3,275 per MT just
this week,” said Lambert.
Mars
Inc. said there is a huge market for cocoa. Earlier, the
company noted there is a big demand in Asia for the
commodity, but there isn’t enough cocoa beans to supply
the region’s needs.
Worldwide, the demand for various cocoa products grows
by 3 percent year-on-year. Despite the increase in world
demand, an official of Mars earlier noted that leading
cocoa producers like West Africa could not produce
enough to supply the appetite of the world for cocoa.
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.
Global
demand for cocoa, Mars noted, has steadily increased
over the last decade. Apart from 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. |
