The Next Big Thing

Cacao, is known to be the “food of the Gods” because of its scientific name Theobroma cacao is derived from the Greek word Theos, which means God, and broma which means food. A quick throwback to the Mayan and Aztec civilization would tell that this crop was used as a royal treat for the Gods. They regarded cacao as a sacred plant and its beans were valued as currency.

As if the ancient times were reincarnated, Dr. Raul Destura (a world-renowned physician and scientist) and his family in Lavezares,
Northern Samar enjoys royalty with their chocolate business aptly called, Cacao Lavezares.

EMBRACING THE CHALLENGES
Just like any other businesses in its infancy stage, problems and challenges are always present, but Dr. Raul Destura, a physician by profession, a National Scientist and TOYM (Ten Outstanding Young Men) awardee, already anticipated this reality. Before the business came into fruition, Dr. Raul made sure that he and his staff were ready for it.

He emphasized that indeed, workforce or manpower is the most important resource in a business and at the same time, it brings a great challenge. Hence, he invested heavily in human capital development.

“You have to ensure that you have the right mix of people and the right mix of expertise. Finding a well-equipped cacao doctor, chocolater, and all other members are crucial to forming a good team,” he underscored.

Dr. Raul knew that in order for their business to work well, specifically on the production aspect, his team studied and visited other chocolate facilities around the country. As of now, they have a newly constructed cacao-processing center located in Lavezares, Northern Samar.

On the side of maintaining the cacao beans supply, Dr. Raul aims to produce one metric ton of cacao beans every month. They can achieve that by reaching out to other cacao farmers in the neighbouring provinces.

“Before, a business like this is dependent on how big your land area is, but now, it is largely dependent on how many partners you have among the farmer’s group. You support the farming industry, they support yours too,” Dr. Raul emphasized.

CHOCOLATE BUSINESS IN NUMBERS
As a businessman, he understands cacao’s huge potential in the local and global market.

According to the website Statista, the retail sales of chocolate worldwide in 2015-2016 is around 98.2 billion US dollars. In the Philippine setting, the revenue for chocolate confectionery is projected to reach 74 million US dollars at the end of this year and is expected to have a 6% increase by 2020.

BRIGHT AND CHOCOLATE-Y FUTURE AHEAD
As the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office-8 continues to intensify its assistance to increase the region’s cacao production, the overall contribution of the region still has a long way to go, only contributing 1% to the total production of the country.

However, according to the 2017-2022 Philippine Cacao Industry Road Map, Eastern Visayas committed a 5% contribution or 5,000 metric tons volume of production by 2022. The National Cacao Industry targets 100,000 metric tons of cacao production by 2022.

Despite this, Dr. Raul has his fingers crossed that the region’s ambitious target of 5,000 metric tons will be achieved, and the cacao industry development in the region will reach greater heights.

He envisions his business to boom in the years ahead and foresees Cacao Lavezares to become one of the models for cacao production and social entrepreneurship. Dr. Raul is determined to make Cacao Lavezares the next “big thing” in the chocolate industry.

“Hopefully, years from now, when I travel to Europe with my family, we would be able to see Cacao Lavezares in the global market, and ultimately put the province, the municipality of Lavezares, in particular, in the map of the best chocolate producing provinces in the world,”
Dr. Raul said.