The municipal government here is strongly supporting the thriving cacao industry with the development of products such as chocolate and tablea by the cooperatives for the livelihood of the residents.
In an interview on Monday, Mayor Kelvin Chan said they would like to launch the products being produced by the cooperatives as another local food product that is ‘tatak Pozorrubio,’ in addition to the native cake ‘patopat’ which the town is known for as its One-Town-One-Product.
“Walang question sa lasa at sa packaging. Kailangan lang ang tulong na ma-introduce sa mas maraming lugar at ito ay pride ng Pozorrubio (There is no question with the taste and the packaging. There is just the need to help them introduce it to other places and it will be a pride of Pozorrubio). The Department of Tourism and the local government unit will assist the cooperatives when they join trade fairs, which is one of the ways to further promote their products,” he said.
Chan said they will also start cacao planting activities, in partnership with the barangays and other stakeholders, for the town to be self-supporting in terms of the supply of cacao beans.
Cacao Growers and Marketing Cooperative chairman Rosario Chua, in a separate interview, said their cacao chocolates are different and unique in taste because of its refined quality.
She said they received a facility from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) under the Shared Service Facility Program in 2021.
The cooperative’s products include cacao tablea, chocolate bars such as milk chocolate, craft chocolate-mixed nuts and mixed fruits, milk chocolate with coffee, chocolate with chili, 60 percent dark chocolate and 70 percent dark chocolate.
Chua said their cooperative was formed in 2016 as a result of their attendance to several Cacao Congress.
“We were invited by DTI to join the congress in Davao. Almost annually, we participated, we listened, and we learned that there is a huge potential in the market. We started planting, it yielded and the result was good. But we did not push-thru immediately because of the delay of equipment. There was also doubt from among the farmers at first,” she said.
Chua said they have less than 30 members as some backed out in the past due to the problem in marketing their products.
But seeing their progress now, some of them are coming back.
She added that the problem they are facing now is supply.
“Sa taas ng demand dito sa Ilocos Region, sa Pangasinan alone kulang ang raw materials, mas mataas ang demand kaysa supply (With the high demand in the Ilocos Region, there is lack of supply in Pangasinan alone). We join Kadiwa, our products reached Manila even abroad. Many overseas Filipino workers wanted to invest in our cooperative thru equipment, but what are we going to process kung kulang ang (if there is lack of) cacao beans?” she said.
To encourage the members of the cooperative, the farmers, and other individuals or groups, the Department of Agriculture Ilocos Region conducted a two-day Training on Coffee and Cacao Production cum Good Agricultural Practice to increase production in the region on July 6 and 7.
With a great demand for cacao beans in all over the country, Ilocos Region’s contribution to the supply has not even reached one percent.
Aside from the Pozorrubio’s Cacao Growers and Marketing Cooperative, other cacao processors in the province are the Cocoa Federico/Royal Cocoa Farm, Myrna’s Food Products, Chocomaker.ph, Aquino’s Natural Chocolate Food Products, DPP Cacao Products, Mimi’s Cacao Processing, and Estrella’s Cacao Products Manufacturing. (PNA)
