CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY in the PHILIPPINES

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The chocolate industry in the Philippines evidences the agricultural roots of the Philippine society. The growing of cacao or cocoa boasts a long history stretching from the colonial times. Originating from Mesoamerican forests, cacao was first introduced by the Spanish colonizers four centuries ago. Since then the Philippine cocoa industry has been the primary producer of cocoa beans in the Southeast Asia. There are many areas of production of cacao in the Philippines, owing to its agriculture. The chocolate industry is currently on a small to medium scale.

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Local terms

The word “chocolate” as we know it today was spelled in different ways throughout time, in different ways such as “chocalatall,” “jocolatte,” “jacolatte,” and “chockelet.” It is a derivative of the word cacahuatl or xocoatl, a bitter drink the Aztecs brewed from cacao beans mixed with spices, wine, and other local ingredients that can be traced back to Pre-Columbian Mexico.

Cacahuatl is an amalgamation of the Mayan words kaj and kab, which translates to “bitter juice.” The suffix -atl that means water or liquid was added to kajkab, forming kajkabatl,and then later kajkabhuatl with the insertion of the diphthong hu.

The cacao tree, whose scientific Latin name given by Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus in 1753 is Theobroma cacao, is one of the 22 Theobroma species. Theobroma means “food for the Gods", from the Greek words theo (god) and broma (food). This species is utilized as raw materials for pharmaceutical products and cosmetics, however, cacao is primarily used for the production of chocolate and cocoa by processing the beans.

In the Filipino language, chocolate is translated as tsokolate, which is also a hot chocolate drink made from tablea. Tablea are cacao tablets made from roasted and ground cacao nibs molded into rounds or tablets traditionally used in the Philippines for making hot chocolate. A batirol, a wooden whisk-like instrument, is the Filipino adaptation of the Spanish word batidor that is utilized by rubbing the stick back and forth between one’s palms in order to thoroughly mix hot water with the tablet in a chocolatera to make it frothy. The result is tsokolate de batirol, a thick, creamy, hot chocolate drink, otherwise referred to as sikawate in the Visayas region.

Tablea is also used in the production of champorado, among many other cacao delicacies. Otherwise referred to as tsamporado, it is a sweet, rice porridge dish in the Philippines enjoyed by many hot or cold, usually partnered with dried fish, either tuyo or daing.

Champorado is a sweet chocolate rice porridge in Philippine cuisine.

Origin of cacao in the Philippines

The cacao plant was primarily brought to the Philippines in the 1700s when a Spanish galleon from Mexico transported pure Criollo, considered to be one of the best kinds of cacao, from Mesoamerica to the Pacific. Although cacao trees were originally grown in Mexico and Central America, the Philippines became an ideal cultivation grounds for cacao because of its geography as a tropical rainforest located 10-15 degrees from the Earth’s Equator, with the cacao belt located within 20 degrees of the Equator. Today, cacao trees are cultivated throughout equatorial region including the Caribbean, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands of Samoa and New Guinea

Chocolate industry in the Philippines

 

Industry background

 

Cacao, which originated from South American forests, is the source material of chocolate products. However, modern cacao is mostly produced by African and European countries such as the Ivory Coast, Germany and Belgium. As a minor player in the global industry, the Philippines also engages in cacao cultivation nearly everywhere around the archipelago, even during the early 1900s.

Cacao Industry

The Philippine cacao industry consists mostly of smallholder farmers who supply medium-scale manufacturers. However, domestic production is insufficient; local cacao demand outweighs the cacao supply both locally and globally. One major factor that affects caco production in the country is "the lack of post-harvest knowledge, equipment, and facilities to ensure bean quality for chocolate manufacturing."  Since that is the case, cacao exports are far less than country's imports. The Department of Trade and Industry Reports that in 2012, cacao imports amounted to 3,662 tons, while cacao exports amounted to only 512 tons.

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA