News

June 2011 : Philippines Update
In April, CoCoPal officially enrolled 4,763 in farmer field schools (FFS) and conducted 181 FFS sessions.

ACDI/VOCA successfully held a Philippines Cocoa Investment and Development Workshop from April 28-29, in Davao City. Over 200 local and international stakeholder delegates attended from all sectors. USDA Agricultural Counselor Philip Shull and Undersecretary of the Philippine Department of Agriculture Joel Rudinas were keynote speakers. The workshop culminated with a cocoa study tour for participants and the establishment of a new association of Mindanao-based cocoa stakeholders, the Philippine Cocoa Industry Association.

April 2011 : Philippines Update
The CoCoPal project has signed up 6,017 farmers for farmer field schools trainings to take place in March and April.

In March, the CoCoPal project held several official launching ceremonies in the provinces of Zamboanga del Norte (with partner Land Care Foundation), Davao del Norte, and Compostela Valley (with partner Philippine Rice Research Institute).

December 2010 : Philippines Update
ACDI/VOCA established two regional offices in Davao City and Dipolog City to serve Southern and Western Mindanao. Eight agricultural development facilitators and two regional coordinators headed to their posts. The field staff together with our national partners paid courtesy calls to local government units (LGUs) and introduced CoCoPal projects. The LGUs expressed support for the project.

ACDI/VOCA conducted a value chain analysis of the coconut, cocoa and rice value chains in the Philippines to better understand these focus crops and their stakeholders.

The CoCoPal program promoted cocoa and coconuts in various exhibitions and trade fairs, including the Malagos Farm Fair and Kaniyugan Festival in August and the Davao Agri-Trade Expo in November.

October 2010 : Philippines Update
Cacao Watch Newsletter
ACDI/VOCA and its partners produce this bimonthly cocoa industry newsletter. Download the first issue (PDF, 453 KB).

June 2010 : Philippines Update
ACDI/VOCA continued the detailed planning process of our new CoCoPal Program with the four project implementing partners: Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), Cocoa Foundation of the Philippines (CocoaPhil), Philippine Association of Small Coconut Farmers Organisation (PASCFO) and Landcare Foundation of the Philippines (LFPI). The recipients are finalizing activities for their subawards, including drafting annual work plans and budgets for the first year. The subawards, once signed, will provide them with funds to undertake co-implementation of project activities in their respective areas.

April 2010 : Philippines Update
In April, ACDI/VOCA and partners launched a 3-year, $5.4 million project to increase the incomes and food security of 25,000 farmers in Western and Southern Mindanao. The USDA-funded project is named CoCoPAL after cocoa, coconut and the palayamanan system of farming rice (palay) alongside high-value crops (kayamanan¸or wealth). Palayamanan ensures the efficient use of farm resources to enable farmers to produce greater volumes of diverse crops while retaining soil fertility.

"I believe that the Philippines can deliver total quality cocoa beans to the world and Asia," says Fay Fay Choo, commercial manager of Mars, Inc., who spoke at the project launch. Over 200 invitees from local governments, trading and processing companies attended the event.

March 2010 : Philippines Update
ACDI/VOCA received a 2010 ALINe Farmer’s Voice Award, which recognizes the beneficiary-centric work that the SUCCESS Alliance II project completed in the Philippines. ACDI/VOCA was chosen because of the innovative PAR Farm (Participatory Adoption and Results Monitoring) tool  that regularly seeks, collects and records farmers opinions on the quantity and quality of services they receive through project interventions. ACDI/VOCA plans to continue to use PAR Farm in the new CoCoPal project and will work with ALINe to evaluate the effectiveness of PAR Farm on project outcomes.

September 2009: Philippines Update
As of July 31, SUCCESS Alliance has graduated more than 13,742 farmers from farmer field schools, with 361 cocoa clubs formed. In 2009 alone, SUCCESS Alliance provides support to 1,289 new cocoa farmers and 2,800 additional farmers in cocoa rehabilitation. The program has reached a total of 15,452 farmers as direct beneficiaries.

As of the end of July, SUCCESS Alliance has supported 69 nursery operators, which have planted a total of 1,020,000 seedlings. In addition, 810,000 plants have been grafted and of these 678,351 plants distributed. A total of 73 bud wood gardens with the approved NSIC clones have been established or rehabilitated.

July 13 -16, 40 cocoa farmers from Luzon, Panay and Palawan, took part in a cocoa market study tour to Mindanao. They visited the Mars Cocoa Development Centre, cocoa farms, cocoa post-harvest processing facilities and traders and buyers of beans. They left with action plans to lobby their local government units for continuing support for cocoa development.

July 2009: Philippines Update
SUCCESS Alliance has reached 1,289 new cocoa farmers and 2,800 additional farmers to provide cocoa rehabilitation support. This brings to date a total of 15,452 farmers as direct beneficiaries under SUCCESS Alliance’s Phase II program in the Philippines.

On June 9th and 18th, over 170 farmers took part in a one-day cocoa market development workshop, which emphasized understanding and accepting the need for bean quality as assessed under the official cocoa bean standards of the Philippines. Farmers were also given assessments on bean prices, costs of production and costs of marketing.

March 2009: Philippines Update
In Davao City, the SUCCESS Alliance held the first cocoa post-harvest best-practices clinic from January 28-29, 2009. This clinic brought together 50 cocoa farmers, traders, processors, technicians and other stakeholders to share best practices and to recognize participants producing high-quality cocoa. The region of Davao has also benefited from the market linkage of at least 180 SUCCESS farmers' cocoa with Askinosie Chocolate, a U.S.-based company that purchased cocoa for the production of its organic, single-origin premium chocolate bars.

February 2009: Philippines Update
ACDI/VOCA partner Mars, Inc., launched its Mars Cocoa Development Center (MCDC) in partnership with Puentespina Farms in Davao City on April 2, 2008, with enthusiastic support from SUCCESS Alliance implementing partners and stakeholders. MCDC helps to provide opportunities for Filipino cocoa stakeholders by providing training in sustainable agricultural practices. MCDC will implement work in production, post-harvest processing techniques and marketing approaches to help farmers consistently produce beans that meet national quality standards.

January 2008: U.S. Ambassador Visits
U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenny visited a project site in northern Luzon on December 7. She observed a farmer field school in action and briefly engaged with the farmers, local government officials and SUCCESS Alliance staff. Members of the press covered the visit.

July 2007: Philippines Update
The program is approaching the end of its first year of implementation. Its progress was the topic of a Participatory Program Planning and Review (PPPR) workshop held on July 26 and 27 on Panglao Island, Bohol, which was attended by representatives from ACDI/VOCA and CocoaPhil. Farmer training has now commenced in all four targeted areas with 3,018 farmers mobilized.

June 2007: Second Training of Trainers Program Successful
ACDI/VOCA and CocoaPhil successfully delivered the second Training of Trainers (ToT) Program from May 20-30 in Palawan, Philippines. A total of 24 Training Facilitators (TFs) graduated, bringing the total number of TFs to 48 as of June 30.

April 2007: First Draft of Cocoa Bean Quality Standards Completed
The Cocoa Foundation of the Philippines, Inc. completed the first draft of the "Cocoa Bean Quality Standards for the Philippines" and presented this to the Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Production Standards under the Department of Agriculture. The draft standards have been released to stakeholders for feedback with a possible inception by December 2007.

December 6, 2006: Launch of SUCCESS Alliance Philippines: Phase II 
A ceremony marking the launch of the SUCCESS Alliance Philippines: Phase II project was held in Manila on October 27, 2006. The event was sponsored by ACDI/VOCA, project implementer and co-sponsor. The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). To read the full press release, click here.