Davao City – Comval cacao farmers receive their national awards and recognition being the qualifiers of the “National Cacao Awards” during the “National Cacao Congress – Kakao Konek 2018” held at the Davao Convention Center, Davao City. There were thirty-three (33) individual farmers who participated in the contest coming from the different regions in the country and ten (10) of them are coming from Compostela Valley Province.
The participants from Comval are Pablo Pesquera and Ismael Polinar of the municipality of New Bataan, Ranilo Molina of the municipality of Laak, Marjorie Gallana of the municipality of Monkayo, Fernando Esquadro, Dean Mark Sabella and Marcelina Mangaron both in the municipality of Maragusan, Imelda Zamora of the municipality of Maco, Eugenio Alcaria, Jr. and Peter Paul Cruz of the municipality Nabunturan.
According to Minda Agarano- Provincial Agriculturist that the objective of this is to increase awareness and promote education along cacao supply chain on the opportunity to produce high quality cacao beans and facilitate communication and linkage between cacao farmers, cocoa processor and the whole supply chain.
“We also wanted to document and share the outstanding initiatives and good agricultural practices of our outstanding cacao farmers to other farmers throughout the country, the Philippine cacao industry council,” she said.
The contest was open to all individual cacao farmers throughout the country and the interested farmers submitted five kilos of fermented bean sample to the selection committee and evaluator.
Agarano added that during the competition, the selection committee is composed of six (6) well known processor and chocolate makers and one (1) representative from the academe. They properly evaluated the samples submitted based on the Philippine national standard on Cacao beans like bean count, bean grade and profile flavor of beans after roasting.
“Whoever wins for the 10 best quality beans will be elevated for the next year competition and for the Gold Award in 2019. They will receive a plaque and a 1 year supply of fertilizer good for 2 hectares and will be given a chance to be in Salon Du Chocolate in France to represent the Philippines for the International Cacao Awards contest in France,” said Agarano.
On the other hand, Usec. Evelyn Laviña congratulated the farmers for making it to the top 10 national cacao bean awards and biggest pods and beans contest.