Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The 2020 Challenge

Earlier this year, the Philpress News & Features announced a goal for the Philippines to plant 58 million cacao trees by the year 2020. It will require 130,000 filipino farmers planting 7 million cacao trees every year. This will produce 100,000 metric tons of cocoa by 2020.

This was a challenge set by ACDI/VOCA who has been actively assisting the filipino cacao farming industry.

With a modest price of $2500 per metric ton, this is a potential of $250 million in export earnings for the Philippines cocoa industry. The global market price is about $3400 per metric ton.

Since cacao is a great crop that can be planted along side existing ones, farmers who already planting coconut, banana, and mango trees can easily plant cacao and be part of the growing opportunity.

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