“Our banana farmers are still drowning in unpaid debts due to low buying prices by exporters. This crisis has opened our eyes and made us realize that putting our eggs in one basket can be too risky especially for our small farmers. That’s why many of them are eager to plant cacao now,” Dalayon said.
SMALL BANANA FARMERS in the southern island of Mindanao cannot afford to continue losing huge amount of money from low buying prices of exporters, according to chief executive officer Rene Dalayon of the Federation of Cooperatives in Mindanao (FEDCO).
Seeing the big market potentials of cacao in the world market, Dalayon said FEDCO member-cooperatives are now eager to venture into the full scale production of cacao as a hedge against the uncertainty prevailing in the Philippine banana industry.
“Our banana farmers are still drowning in unpaid debts due to low buying prices by exporters. They can’t survive only on $2.90 per carton when its worth $5.50 a carton. This crisis has opened our eyes and made us realize that putting our eggs in one basket can be too risky especially for our small farmers. That’s why many of them are eager to plant cacao now,” Dalayon said.
The FEDCO chief said many of his members in the country’s biggest group of farm cooperatives “do not intend to cut or replace bananas with cacao” but to set aside some of their farm areas exclusively for planting cacao” and take advantage of the strong rising world price of cacao.
Dalayon said at least 75% of his member-coops comprising around 4,000 farmers have began clearing up farm areas in Davao del Norte, Compostela and Davao del Sur provinces that will be devoted solely to planting cacao trees and producing cacao beans.
The FEDCO chief admitted they were impressed when they saw a cacao demonstration farm in Malagos, Calinan where cocoa experts from global trader Mars Cocoa conducted a lecture and farm tour for FEDCO member farmers’
Cocoa’s huge export potential, low global supply, strong rising price
and foreign buyers and traders ready to buy all their production are factors that have inspired FEDCO banana farmers to start switching to cacao, according to Dalayon.
PHILPRESS NEWS
Posted on May 3, 2011
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