FOREIGN COCOA BUYERS and traders have expressed optimism that this southern Philippine port city of Davao will soon become one of the world’s key suppliers of cacao beans.
 “The Philippines has a huge potential to expand its production of cacao beans especially in the Davao region which has the best areas and ideal conditions for cacao farms to thrive,” says Dr. Smilja Lambert, a Norwegian consultant with Mars Cocoa Inc, one of the world’s biggest buyers of cocoa.
             Among Asian countries, the Philippines has the smallest production of cacao beans at around 5,000 metric tons of cacao beans last year. Its highest production was in 1980 with 20,000 tons and 1990 with 35,000 tons, declining over the years as farmers abandoned cacao farming for other more profitable crops.
            Lambert said Asia has a large cocoa processing industry but only a small volume of fermented cacao beans are being produced by countries in the region. “There are so many cocoa processing centers in Asia but hardly enough cacao beans are available to process,” she said.
            Indonesia has the biggest cocoa production at 600,000 tons last year followed by Papua new Guinea at 50,000 tons and Malaysia at 17,000 tons.    

               Trailing behind, according to Lambert, were  India at 7,000 tons, the Philippines at 5,000 tons and Vietnam at 1,000 tons.
 Japan, China, Malaysia, and Indonesia, which have big cocoa processing centers imported a total of 220,000 metric tons of raw cacao fermented beans last year from Ivory Coast, West Africa, the world’s biggest producer of cacao beans.  
               The Philippines, according to the Marsman consultant, has the capability and the best conditions to become a major cocoa producer, supplying 100,000 metric tons to the world market by the year 2020.
           “That’s the reason why we’re here in Davao to help as many farmers as possible to plant as many cacao trees now  to hit our production target ten years from now,” Lambert said.
            Mars Cocoa want to see the Philippines, starting in Davao, develop cacao farm areas with a target total of 50 million cacao trees ten years from now, enough to produce 100,000 tons of cacao beans, according to Lambert.
                                                     PHILPRESS NEWS

  “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

           “Even if thePhilippinescan achieve its goal of producing its target of 100,000 tons in 2020, that figure still cannot meet both domestic and huge global demand for cocoa,” Loh said.

 A MALAYSIAN  trader who had been buying cacao beans from Asian producing countries for many years expressed optimism that this southern Philippine city will soon become one ofAsia’s major cocoa supplier to the world market.

          Godfrey Loh, operations director of The Armajaro Group, one of the world’s biggest cacao trading company based inKuala Lumpur, said he has become “excited” about the current developments taking place among small farmers in the emergingDavaocacao industry here.

          “This is a perfect place for cacao production. There’s no  extreme weather like typhoons here, rainfall is good, the soil is perfect, and there are still huge farm areas for expansion,” Loh told mediamen here.

          As a key cacao trader in Asia, Loh regularly travels around the region, buying cacao beans from Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam and the Philippines to supply the cocoa processing plants in Malaysia, Japan, US and Europe.

          “We simply can’t get enough cacao beans here inAsiaeven to supply the large cocoa processing industry in the Asian region,” Loh said.

          The Armajaro executive said he is presently buying the fermented cocoa beans produced by Golden Sunset Farms owned by Charita Puentespina in Malagos, Calinan and the CSI Trade Ventures owned by cacao farmers ofSan Isidrotown In Davao del Norte and managed by Dante Muyco, a former official of the Department of Trade and Industry.

          Loh said he has given assurances toDavaocacao farmers that his Malaysian company is ready to buy all the cacao beans produced in this region over the next ten years as thousands of farmers vowed to plant a total of 58 million cacao trees to produce 100,000 metric tons of cacao beans.

          Some Davao farmers have expressed fears that cacao buyers may not be around to buy all their cacao beans by the time when all their cacao trees

are ready for harvest, estimated to be around ten years from now.        

          “Even if thePhilippinescan achieve its goal of producing its target of 100,000 tons in 2020, that figure still cannot meet both domestic and huge global demand for cocoa,” Loh said.

                              PHILPRESS NEWS

 “To reach our goal of 58 million trees, all we need is a seven million replanting rate for cacao trees per year, assuming a farmer has one hectare of farmland planted to 500 cacao trees,”

  IT WILL TAKE 130,000 Filipino farmers planting seven million cacao trees every year to achieve thePhilippines’ goal of  reaching 58 million cacao fruit-bearing trees that will produce 100,000 metric tons of cocoa by year 2020.

          These were the estimates cited by Nic Richardson, chief of party for ACDI- VOCA, a private non-profit organization funded by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) during the Philippines Cacao Development and Investment Workshop held recently at the Waterfront Insular Hotel in this city.

          ACDI-VOCA stands for the Agricultural Cooperative Development International and Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance  which  are actively involved with Filipino farmers’ cooperatives for the massive production of high-value crops in thePhilippines.

         Richardsontold participants of the recent national cacao workshop here that these targets set up by ACDI-VOCA researchers are “achievable” as many limiting factors were considered in coming up with the projections and production estimates

“To reach our goal of 58 million trees, all we need is a seven million replanting rate for cacao trees per year, assuming a farmer has one hectare of farmland planted to 500 cacao trees,”Richardsonpointed out. 

           Calling it a “2020 challenge”, the ACDI-VOCA chief called out for firm commitments from various farmers’ groups and cooperatives during the recentDavaococoa workshop which was accepted by all the participants which came from various parts ofMindanao.

            The US dollar value of 100,000 tons of cocoa assuming a modest world price of US$2500 per ton would be $250 million in export earnings for every shipment coming out of the Davaoport, according toRichardson.

             Prevailing market price of cocoa in the global commodity futures market currently hovers around $3400 per metric ton, according to latest world prices quoted by Bloomberg.

                                               PHILPRESS NEWS

According to Charlesworth, he gets only around 3% to 5% profit

gain on his online day trading with Fidelity Investments as his broker,

in the US and does not believe that any Filipino trader or investor can earn 40%, 60% or

even 100% on any stock in the Philippines.

  DAVAO CITY, PHILIPPINES —- A Filipino stock trader

here who claimed to have gained 300% profits in the Philippine

stock market after one year has been disputed by a number

of US stock traders on Wall Street.

“How can a Filipino based in an obscure island

some where in the Pacific be able to understand the stock

market enough to make that kind of profit ? “ was the reaction

of US-based stock trader Peter Charlesworth who saw the

story on the website of Goldelyonn Growth Fund at www.

tradingfund.wordpress.com.

Charlesworth said the claim is “unbelievable” and raised

some suspicions that the figures backing up the claim may have

been rigged “to make that outrageous claim”

Jamil Ahmed, a stock trader at Goldelyonn said he stands

by the claim, stressing that the exact figure was 342% using a

small capital of only around P25,000 which was invested in fast

rising local stocks starting January 2010 in the Philippine stock

exchange.

“This was actually just an experiment to find out if it’s

possible to adopt the trading plans and strategies of great US

traders like William O’Neil, Richard Driehaus, Jesse Livermore,

Martin Zeig , using local Philippine stocks,” Ahmed pointed out.

After 12 months around the end of December 2010, according

to Ahmed, the value of his stock holdings grew to around P85,000

which is more than triple the amount he now has after making profits

of 20% to 45% on several of the Philippine stocks he bought and sold

with durations of 30 days to 90 days.

Using the same trading plans and strategies, Ahmed said it

is now possible for their growth fund Goldelyonn to make this kind

of superior performance with investors who have P500,000 or P5 million

committed to them for fund management.

“Even if we make only 40% to 60% gain on investors’ funds,

that’s much better than most mutual funds or bank trust funds” says

Ahmed.

According to Charlesworth, he gets only around 3% to 5% profit

gain on his online day trading with Fidelity Investments as his broker,

and does not believe that any trader or investor can earn 40%, 60% or

even 100%.on any stock in the Philippines.

Charlesworth said mutual funds in the US and the Philippines

are mostly “underperforming” with returns of only 8% to 12% and cannot

reached the figure claimed by Goldelyonn.

“ I just think that’s outrageous and deceiving and won’t convince me

unless those guys show me a well-audited rundown on all those figures

shown by that Filipino website,”

Another US trader, Kenneth Carrigan based in Wall Street, New York

said he also saw the figures presented by Goldelyonn Growth Fund and agreed that a “good audit will prove whether or not the claim is true or not”

Carrigan, who is married to a Filipina, admitted however the global economic recovery which started around June 2009, was more pronounced in Asia than in the US

whose economy collapsed under the weight of the financial meltdown on Wall

Street.

“Although I’m taking this with a grain of salt, I can’t ignore that Asian

countries like Indonesia. Malaysia and the Philippines were some of the world’s

best performing stock markets,” Carrigan told Philpress News.

.

—— PHILPRESS NEWS

“If you don’t know what to do, if you don’t know how the stock market behaves, you can lose a lot of money. Most investors are complete idiots.  But if you know your way around the market, you can make a lot of money in a very short time,” Ahmed said.

DAVAO, PHILIPPINES —-Lack of knowledge on stock market basics and how the market behaves have been blamed for losses in stock investments, according to a Davao stock market analyst.

Jamil Ahmed, a stock trader, market analyst and former equities account executive of a Makati-based brokerage firm said the risks for losses are too big for people with money who are ignorant of the stock market. “If you don’t know what to do, if you don’t know how the stock market behaves, you can lose a lot of money. Most investors are complete idiots.  But if you know your way around the market, you can make a lot of money in a very short time,” Ahmed said.

The Davao stock trader said he was happy that the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has finally recognize this need to mount a nationwide education program for local investors who want to learn stock trading basics. “It’s about time the PSE do this type of education campaign. I think they’re making the right moves at the right time when people really need this type of training in the stock market” Ahmed told Philpress.

Ahmed who runs his own private fund Goldelyonn and the website Pinoy Stock Trader at www.pinoy777.wordpress..com, said he also want to help people “in my own little way to understand the basics techniques in stock trading like how to select the right stocks, how to avoid losses, when to sell, etc so they too, can benefit from this bull market that started late last year”

The stock trader has already started receiving several inquiries on the stock trading seminar forum he also plans to set up in Davao sometime next month.

                                                                                                                                                   PHILPRESS NEWS

 
DAVAO , PHILIPPINES—–  A newly-formed banana industry group here has set into motion a number of steps which will lay a strong foundation for better prices and productivity of the banana industry in Davao region.
             Problems bugging the banana industry these past years that led to lower productivity, deteriorating quality and high production costs prompted the industry cluster group here to come up with a project that will address these problems.
            The group is composed of banana farmers’ cooperatives, government agencies, private firms and with full support of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
            “We can’t let these problems continue. These are the problems that resulted in the banana price war here last year when many banana growers turn their backs on their contracts and sought other buyers who  paid higher prices for their fruit,” says Ireneo Dalayon, chief executive officer of the Federation of Cooperatives in Mindanao (FEDCO) who is leading the banana industry cluster team in the P1.2 million project funded by JICA along with other government agencies.
             Dalayon said the project is looking at “institutionalizing” the banana industry cluster concept in the Davao Region that would assure both domestic and foreign buyers of high quality bananas.
              All commercial varieties of fresh bananas grown in the region are covered by the foreign-funded project. These include the giant Cavendish bananas grown in big plantation scale in northern, central and southern Mindanao as well as local exotic varieties like the lakatan, latundan, bungulan, senorita and cardaba, according to Dalayon.
              Chosen as the pilot project for the banana industry cluster team is the town of Sto. Tomas based on the team’s assessment that the municipality has big farm areas planted to the giant cavendish bananas and other exotic varieties, covering approximately 10,000 hectares of farms run by some 6,000 small farmers and contract growers.
                Dalayon said the team wants to form a strong, well-organized banana cluster group in Sto.Tomas, solving their own problems and boosting the quantity and quality of fresh bananas “that can later be replicated by other banana producing areas in the entire Davao region”.
In one of their initial activities in July, the banana cluster team led by Dalayon went to Sto.Tomas and gathered together all the farmers and growers, together with their barangay and town officials to launch and introduce the industry cluster concept that will involve all of them in mapping out the destiny and direction of their farming ventures.
               The banana industry cluster team was organized with the full active participation of the Mindanao Banana Farmers and Exporters Association (MBFEA), Federation of Cooperatives in Mindanao (FEDCO), Banana Industry Council for Southern Mindanao (BICSMin), Southern Philippines Agribusiness Marine and Aquatic School of Technology (SPAMAST), Department of Agriculture and Department of Trade and Industry.   —- 

                                                                                                                                        PHILPRESS NEWS

 The Philippines is trailing far behind Asia-Pacific countries like China, Japan and Korea in the internationally-accepted global standards of the Good Agriculture Practices or GAP which is a strict requirement of more advanced countries in allowing the imports of fresh produce like fruits and vegetables into their countries.

DAVAO , PHILIPPINES  —-  A top United Nations official has expressed dismay and skepticism over the slow progress of the Philippine government in achieving the high global standards required in the world’s fruit exports.

            Dr. Ulrich Hoffman, head of trade development in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, said the Philippines is trailing far behind Asia-Pacific countries like China, Japan and Korea in the internationally-accepted global standards of the Good Agriculture Practices or GAP which is a strict requirement of more advanced countries in allowing the imports of fresh produce like fruits and vegetables into their countries.

            “There’s no way the Philippine government can achieve the GAP world standard if its approach to this global requirement from producers and growers is entirely voluntary,” Hoffman told local and foreign delegates to the First Philippine Global Banana Summit held in the southern city of Davao over the weekend.

 Hoffman said the current National GAP Program of the country “doesn’t look like it’s working because it lacks focus and concentration on what is really required in the world’s markets.”

The UN trade official said there are 240 “control points” for a fresh fruit product to achieve the GAP global standard that makes it possible for exporters from producing countries to penetrate the markets of such advanced countries like US and Europe. Many Philippine products could hardly even pass one-third of the control points, according to Hoffman.

            “It’s very important for farmers in every country to understand what GAP is all about, which isn’t just the production of safe and quality fruits but also to protect the environment where the products come from,” Hoffman said.

            Although Hoffman cited the efforts of the Philippine government for the progress made under its National GAP Program, he urged concerned government agencies and industry stakeholders to get together soonest and come up with a “clear concept and vision ” of achieving this goal of a GAP global standard.  

                                                                            ( PHILPRESS NEWS )

            “There’s no such ban— our bigger problem there is that our exporters cannot find a bank that will accept a Letter of Credit opened by an Iranian buyer to buy our Philippine bananas. Most export transactions are done on a cash basis,” Alcala told the global summit delegates.

DAVAO , PHILIPPINES—–  A bureaucratic foul-up between two government ministries in Tehran, Iran, has been blamed for the short temporary “ban” of Philippine fresh bananas into the Iranian fresh fruit market..

            This was revealed here by the Department of Trade and Industry export promotion director Senen Perlada during the First Philippine Global Banana Summit held at the Central Bank building over the weekend.

            “Apparently, there was a mix-up in that list of 49 fruits banned for imports drawn up by the Ministry of Agriculture and submitted to the Ministry of Commerce in Tehran so import permits will not be issued to Iranian importers, but this was later revised which excluded Philippine fruits” Perlada told delegates during the global banana summit here.

             Perlada said he got this information from high authorities in Dubai UAE and Iran, stressing that this incident is a “wake up call” to big multinational fruit exporters here trying to corner the Iranian market for fresh bananas. “I also see this as a big opportunity for small banana exporters and small farmers trying to deal directly with Iranian importers and enjoying better prices for their fruits, “ Perlada said. .  

              Secretary of Agriculture Proceso Alcala also confirmed that Iran is not banning Philippine fresh bananas from entering the big Iranian market but initially expressed alarm and deep concern when the news came out in the national media.

            “There’s no such ban— our bigger problem there is that our exporters cannot find a bank that will accept a Letter of Credit opened by an Iranian buyer to buy our Philippine bananas. Most export transactions are done on a cash basis,” Alcala told the global summit delegates.

            Alcala said the government is now looking for ways to solve this problem of payment terms acceptable to both Filipino exporters and Iranian buyers. “This new government is giving the banana export industry our top priority. One of our marching orders is to strengthen our banana exports in the global markets,” Alcala said.

            Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association executive director Stephen Antig said this new development shows how much Iran need a regular supply of Philippine bananas despite barriers and problems that local exporters face in shipping the fruit to Iran. “ We are thanking the Iranian government for not including Philippine bananas, pineapples and papaya in the list of 49 fruits they banned for importation to Iran”, Antig said.

            Philippine Quarantine Service latest data show that Philippine banana exporters shipped more than 32 million carton boxes of fresh Cavendish bananas last year, racking up nearly 5 billion pesos in export earnings and benefiting around 216,000 workers and their families in Mindanao.   

                                                                    —– PHILPRESS NEWS

            We’re saying this because I’ve tried operating part-time for several years as an “export agent” ,”manufacturer’s representative” and “export broker” but had very little success in earning the “right” commissions for my efforts.

Commentary by Jamil Ahmed
 
DAVAO CITY, PHILIPPINES —-People who specializes only in searching foreign buyers for local products and matching them with suppliers and producers for export— are all dying not from natural death but from deliberate “killings” by Filipino exporters and suppliers themselves.
            We’re saying this because I’ve tried operating part-time for several years as an “export agent” ,”manufacturer’s representative” and “export broker” but had very little success in earning the “right” commissions for my efforts.

          But being “right” in computing what rightly belongs to me had been rejected time and time again by big and small exporters I’ve dealt with here in Davao over the years— which explains why I’m still very poor and languishing here below the poverty line..
            Working under my own export-import agency several years back, I helped opened the fruit market in the Russian coastal city of Vladivostok for a global brand of fresh mango, fresh papaya, fresh papaya and fresh bananas exported by a multinational export firm based in Davao..

            That Russian city was dominated then only by Del Monte and Chiquita fresh fruits before a big US-based Russian trader started flooding the market with this top global brand..
               Since I was contacted directly by my Russian friends Artem and Maxim from that Russian trading firm, this was a significant development for this Davao multinational export firm who had been looking for ways to penetrate the Russian market..
            For my pioneering efforts in helping this exporting firm open this market, I was paid only a one-time small fee called “marketing consutancy fee” instead of a commission rate based on the number of carton boxes which I asked from the company. The company told me it was not legal for them to deal with “export agents” like me, so they had to find a way to pay me for my efforts.
            The company didn’t even tell me that they had already started the trial shipments until I found out months later from friends inside their shipping department.

          This experience highlights the kind of economic risks export agents like me faced in this type of export transaction with local exporters and suppliers. But eventually they paid up that small fee and everything was forgotten long after that.
            But it’s not only the big exporters who avoid dealing with small export agents who operate with no capital like me. Even socialized banana cooperatives who oversee the operations of small banana growers also seek the help of export agents to find foreign buyers for them.

             But when the buyers are finally found and export deals are done, most banana coops managers violate signed contracts and avoid paying the commission to export agents, leaving them empty handed in most export deals. 

           I’m not sure yet whether or not this is now the prevalent trend in the entire Phiippine export industry— the “killing” of export agents by both multinational fruit firms and banana cooperatives.
            Killing the “middleman” in the export deals by both banana cooperatives and multinational exporters has always been the battle cry of local exporters, a trait that I find only among Filipino exporters— not among foreign exporters that I dealt with over the years.

           As an export agent, I cannot succeed here in the Philippines— exporters “kill” export agents here. That’s why I’ve accepted this “death”and  has started “burying” myself. There’s no point in fighting this overwhelming trend because everything are stacked up against you.
            This is a far cry from the import deals I had in the early 1990’s as an “import- export agent” representing foreign exporters like the Taiwanese, Vietnamese and even the Chinese.

            The Taiwanese, for instance, respects the small percentage ( 5% to 10%) you add on top of the quoted price as “agent commission” and promptly sends the full amount to your bank account by telegraphic bank transfer after an export shipment from their country— a standard operating procedure in international trade. 
            If my opinion is merely my own misconception, just let me know. But I’ve gone thru several export deals to convince myself that exporters are now out “killing” export agents in this country.

                                                                     ( PHILPRESS COMMENTARY)