by Melito Salazar Jr.
November 17, 2013
“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get” – quoting Forrest Gump. We certainly did not know what we would get with typhoon Yolanda. Yes, we knew the winds would be strong, stronger than any typhoon that had inflicted the country this year. Yes, we expected the heavy rainfall. Yes the PAGASA mentioned a “storm surge” but what was that? None of us before the occurrence could visualize what a storm surge was. If only we had been told it would be a “mini-tsunami,” 5 meters or higher waves or warned to go to higher grounds, then maybe it would not have been as bad as the tragedy that haunts us all, even a week past.
In the midst of depressing images in the 24-hour TV coverage, in the race to get vital relief goods to the victims and nearing donor fatigue, with the earthquake just a week earlier, we needed some relief ourselves.
We got it in an invitation from the Secretary of Foreign Affairs for a launch of a line of gourmet chocolates, which we pleasantly discovered could now add to our usual “dried mangoes” giveaways to foreign visitors and to co-participants in international conferences. Ralfe Gourmet “enlivens a chocolate-making tradition by incorporating the latest trends in tablea production: well-fermented and dried beans that are roasted and ground to perfection and molded with utmost care to preserve the cacao’s precious antioxidants. The result is 100% cacao liquor that is truly tablea, undoubtedly unadulterated and exquisitely Filipino”.
Founder and President Raquel T. Choa credits her grandmother who not only gave her a tablea drink but also taught her how to prepare one. It started not with just putting the tablea in a clay pot with water but in how to plant cocoa. So Raquel progressed from cocoa planter to tablea maker. Incorporating tradition with innovation and excellence, Ralfe Gourmet now offers roche, chocolate pralines, alfajores, chocolate rice crispies, chocolate bars for beverages, tablea chocolate peanut butter, choco nib cookies, and an assortment of chocolates. All well presented in gift boxes and equal if not better than any chocolates from Europe.
Buying a number of the products, I found out that the purchase was also helping in the recovery efforts of an earthquake and typhoon ravaged area as the plant is in Mabolo, Cebu City. Edward F. David, president of the Cocoa Foundation of the Philippines, Inc., informed me that the cocoa was grown by farmers in the Eastern Visayas area as well. Their foundation with the DA-Agribusiness & Marketing assistance Service conducted the Philippines 1st International Cocoa Conference & Exposition (PICCE) aimed at unveiling Philippines potential investment areas with end-in view of achieving a diversified, competitive, and sustainable Philippine Cacao Industry.
The CocoaPhil also implemented the POSESS Project which focuses on fostering “win-win” relationships through partnership development workshops and strategic planning sessions with select sets of farmers and domestic market intermediaries. The project covers continued education & training sessions to bridge technological gaps, and develop effective market information system.
As the relief operations in the typhoon ravaged areas are finally underway, we should start thinking about recovery, if not development. One can start by patronizing products coming from those areas, by getting the banks to provide loans to restart operations, by enticing locals who have attained success in the metropolitan areas to come back and invest and by government putting in the badly needed infrastructure fast.
Filipinos are a resilient people. We will not only survive this tragedy. We will surmount the challenges and prosper as a community.
Business Bits. The President and UP Vanguard Manuel Roxas Memorial Golf Cup scheduled on Nov. 22 at the Forrest Hills Golf and Country Club will proceed with the victims of Typhoon Yolanda added as beneficiaries.