DAVAO CITY, Philippines—The Philippine Cacao Council announced Wednesday that it will be joining the International Cocoa Awards which will be held in France.
Val Turtur, executive director of Cacao Industry Development Association said the competition was aimed at the promotion of the good agricultural practices while acknowledging the excellent quality of coco beans worldwide.
“Once we will be chosen as winners of this award, we will be known to the whole world to have good quality in cacao,” he said.
Turtur said the awards is expected to gather more than 50 qualifiers from various countries across the globe.
Turtur said they were required to submit at least five kilos of fermented beans from five different producers.
“Our quota is five different samples. It can be recalled that last week the Department of Trade and Industry hosted a meeting to call all producers to submit,” he said.
“We are trying to profile our cacao and the quality of our beans based on our geography,” he said.
Some of the requested farms were Christina Farm and Chocolate de San Isidro. ”
Turtur said the five samples of cacao will be sent to France since the awarding will be on October yet during the event Salon de Chocolat in Paris.
“Salon de Chocolat is one of the most prestigious in the world’s chocolate industry,” he said. However, Turtur said that they only have limited time to prepare for the competition.
“The selection process is supposed to start last October so as early as last year we should have done the preparations,” he said.
Turtur said the competition will help them determine the quality of cocoa here in the Philippines compared to other countries.
Currently, the Council is preparing for a two-day training for chocolate making in the Philippine Women’s College.
Turtur said 15 chocolate experts from United States of America will give the talks during the training.
“This is one way also to improve our chocolates,” he said.
Turtur added that on March 2 to 3, they will also conduct a technical workshop on cacao production on post harvest. (davaotoday.com)
