By EJ Dominic Fernandez
Dante Muyco Jr. stirs his cup of native chocolate like he stirs Mindanao into global competitiveness.
Muyco is the marketing director Chokolate de San Isidro, a cacao company in Davao del Norte which has the biggest land area for cacao with 4,000 hectares.
Chokolate de San Isidro contributes a significant amount of beans supply in Visayas and Luzon and is one of the first cacao businesses that exported cacao products abroad in 2009, specifically in Europe.
According to Muyco, in three years, they will be producing chocolates, not just Cocoa liquor (Tablea) and cacao beans, which will be exported and sold domestically.
“People in Davao region should have a taste of the chocolate that are locally produced,” he said.
According to Muyco, 30 percent of the cacao farms in Chokolate de San Isidro are owned by farmers of beans and they get their dividends every time the company earns.
He said, this is made possible by the successful program of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTA) called “One Town One Product.”
Another strategy that helped Chokolate de San Isidro succeed is by utilizing the aide of PUM Netherlands Senior Experts, a Non-Government Organization funded by the Dutch national team, commonly known as “Holland” in Netherlands.
This NGO provides senior experts to train Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs); and Muyco is the representative of this NGO here in the region.
Chokolate de San Isidro is one of the recipients of PUM Netherlands Senior Experts which also contributed to their (Chokolate de San Isidro) success.
He said that there are a lot of competition in neighboring cities and municipalities which are catching up in land area. However, he takes this as a good sign since it signifies the fast progress of cacao products in Mindanao.
For Muyco, it is a good sign for the industry when more businessmen venture in the business because the market and the demand for cacao products are growing.
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