THE Davao City Agriculturist Office (CAO) on Monday, October 2, launched the Cacao City, a chocolate cafe where visitors can buy locally produced chocolates or cacao-based products.
Officer-in-charge of CAO Leo Brian Leuterio, during the weekly flag raising ceremony on Monday said they are launching the Cacao City in cooperation with Cacao Industry Development Association Mindanao, Inc. (Cidami).
"We are opening the Cacao City at Pasalubong center. It is like a chocolate cafe, you can go there to have your hot chocolate produced by Davao city practitioners and organizations," he said.
Leuterio said the cafe will also have chocolate bars, tableya, and other products by agribusinesses.
"Cacao City signals seriousness and focus to support the... cacao and chocolate industry," he said.
Leuterio said Davao City is starting to provide tree to bar production and experience for chocolate lovers.
"Indeed there is a huge interest of the city in the context of chocolates and cacao, in fact there is a young couple from Manila who migrated here to conduct business, because they know that if you want to do it right in chocolates and cacao, Davao City has expertise, raw materials, and government support," he said.
He also said one of the biggest French chocolate companies has expressed interest to source raw materials from Davao.
Cidami head Dante Muyco, in the same event, said the opening of the Cacao City will not just going to be the landmark for cacao farmers but for Davao City.
"This is a very good example of a mix of governance and private sector collaboration, because even before when we started our business, that was maybe around eight years ago, there was no industry, yet there were only a number of players. Our city mayor, Sara Duterte-Carpio, and the city Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, invited us to join the fair at SP building. I think that is one of the signs where our city government is supporting our micro and mini enterprises and with that in 2012, we formed the Cidami and we embarked into a very ambitious project which is the Kakao Konek conference, everything started with that," he said.
"We (now) have (a) good landmark in Davao City and we invite you all... to go to Cacao City, the name... was coined by our city mayor, she wanted it that way, because we are declaring Davao as the Chocolate capital of the Philippines," Muyco said.