Davao City—Seven farmers from this city will complete the final cast that would represent the region in the national cacao competition, according to the regional office of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
The Department of Agriculture in Region 11 said the seven farmers were chosen to represent the region due to the excellent quality of the cacao beans they produced.
“Davao City submitted 13 samples and out of 13, seven emerged as winners who would represent Davao Region,” said Fe Oguio, the cacao focal person of the City Agriculturist Office.
Of the seven, one is from Paquibato District, two are from Barangay Saloy, Calinan District, two are from Callawa, Buhangin District, and the other two are from Tugbok District.
Oguio said the qualifiers were selected by the judges using the blindfold method. The screening was held on October 12 to 13 at the University of the Philippines Mindanao.
The DA gave the winning farmers plaques of recognition as they were also recognized for completing 10 regionwide qualifiers that will compete for the Philippine Cocoa Quality Awards 2022.
The three other farmers are from Panabo, Davao del Norte and Mati, Davao Oriental.
She said the national-level winners would represent the Philippines in Paris, France in 2023. The awarding for the Philippine Cocoa Quality Awards 2022 would be held at the Cacao Congress on November 28-29 at the SMX Convention Center.
“Those who will win in the national competition will represent the Philippines in 2023 in Paris, France,” Oguio said.
Oguio said many farmers here were able to join because of the efforts of the Department of Trade and Industry and the DA Field Office to promote the competition.
“I am happy because this is an opportunity for us farmers living outside the city center to be recognized and for our cacao to be labeled as delicious because it secured us a slot in the top 10. Two of us from our barangay joined and this is the first time for us,” said Policarpio Enricoso, one of the awardees.
He disclosed that the “uniqueness” of his beans “comes from the fact that these are of the Trinitario variety, which makes them different from new varieties.”
Enricoso is hopeful that such recognition for cacao farmers and cacao products will attract investors.
“Next year we will explore if we could tap more districts and reach out to more farmers to join to show the quality of our beans,” Oguio said.
She said the city has almost 9,000 cacao farmers, with almost 7,000 hectares devoted to cacao. These cacao plantations are usually in Calinan, Baguio, Marilog, and Paquibato District.