Northern Samar No. 1 Producer of Cacao in Eastern Visayas

Catarman, Northern Samar – The province of Northern Samar is the no. 1 producer of Cacao among the six provinces in the region for its high value cacao seed.

This was learned from DA 8 Executive Director Wilson Cerbito at the press conference during the Regional Cacao Stakeholders’ forum held at the Leyte Academic Center, Palo, Leyte yesterday.

Cerbito said currently the region has 5, 000 hectares plantation of cacao, and for 2016 the Department of Agriculture will distribute 600,000 planting materials and target 1.5 million cacao seedlings distribution to farmers by 2017.

He said the department is steadfast in its commitment to produce sustainable and globally competitive farm crops which are highly nutritious, affordable and accessible for every Filipino.

He added that with “the renewed interest of our farm entrepreneurs in the Cacao industry due to the growing demand in the country and abroad, many enterprising farmers, crop experts and other key players rally together and strongly push for cacao to be included among the commodity champions under the high value crops to be given utmost attention by the government.”

The country has a great potential to be a major source of cacao beans for the world market and we are encouraging our farmers to produce quality cacao because the region is standing to the challenge of increasing its contribution to the national cocoa bean output by 5% by the year 2022, he stressed. (ajc/tbc-pia8northernsamar)