Bicol is entering a moment of agricultural transformation. Long known for its pili orchards, fiery cuisine, and volcanic landscapes, the region is emerging as one of the Philippines’ most promising cacao frontiers. Global cocoa prices have soared to historic highs, and while West Africa struggles with disease and climate shocks, Bicol’s smallholder farmers are quietly cultivating a future built on premium beans, community networks, and a terroir (the French term for that special sense of place) uniquely shaped by fire and rain. In 2024, the value of Philippine cacao jumped to ₱1.78 billion, a 49% leap from the previous year. Bicol’s contribution to this surge is unmistakable.

Across Camarines Sur, Albay, and Sorsogon, intrepid women-led agribusinesses, new growers’ associations, private farms, and micro-processors are taking root. Among them is Fiorella “Lala” Raphaelle Escober Ouradnik, whose Crave Cacao Orchard in Calabanga has become a training ground for farmers seeking to master propagation, pruning, and post-harvest quality. Her work with the Calabanga Cacao Growers Association has helped to provide small stakeholders with a market for their produce.

Elsewhere in Bicol are emerging evidences of success — Alea Chocolates of Borongan, Oas, Albay, a fast-growing enterprise led by Eileen Kae Relao supplies premium chocolate products locally and to international markets like Japan. It is recognized by DA-ATI as a Key Cacao Processor. Also in Albay is Muravah Foundation, makers of Mayon Gold Chocolates. A social enterprise, their cacao is grown by farmers along the foot hills of Mayon Volcano in Camalig. In Bulawan Sr, Lupi, Camarines Sur, Magel Golden Integrated Farm, owned by Marigel Malinao Bacalso, is a notable producer of high-quality cacao beans for local trade fairs and consultant for Villareal Cacao Farm. A certified agri-learning site, it also works with the Lupi Cacao Planters Association.

The 1st Bicol Cacao Congress and 4th Cacao Festival was held in Naga City from August 22 to 24, 2025. The agricultural event championed the region as the Philippines’ emerging premium chocolate hub, drawing nearly 1,000 attendees, cacao champions and industry experts. The congress showcased Bicol women in leadership who shared their expertise: Lala Ouradnik of Crave Cacao (economics of cacao business), Eileen Kae Relao of Alea Chocolates (market access and export readiness), Marigel Bacalso of Magel Golden Integrated Farm, and joined by Dr. Ramona Isabel S. Ramirez of CBSUA, and Mayor Leni Robredo of Naga City. Bob Murray, chairman of Muravah Foundation, shared his insights on the potential of heirloom cacao production in Camalig, Albay

Beginnings

The following has been adapted from the article by Annielyn L. Baleza, DA RAFIS V, with reports from Ruben Fajardo III; Department of Agriculture–Bicol, FB post dated May 29, 2024.

For Lala Ouradnik, comforting thoughts of the aroma of tablea dissolving in hot milk are stitched together with happy childhood memories of climbing cacao trees, cracking open ripe pods and savoring the sweet raw beans. She was already a chocophile long before she became a farmer.

“We’re so used to eating imported chocolates,” she recalls. “But since we grow cacao, why not make our own? That’s where my passion for promoting Philippine chocolates began.” That early love for cacao would eventually shape her life’s mission: to champion a truly Filipino, tree‑to bar chocolate.

In 2019, she and her family chose to settle on a 4.1‑hectare property in Calabanga. She began developing her farm which would become Crave Cacao Orchard—a name inspired by the emotional pull of chocolate itself. “Chocolate helps when we feel sad or depressed. When we crave happiness or love, don’t we turn to chocolate?” she says.

She committed to build Crave Cacao as a single- origin, tree-to-bar chocolate producer. Her cacao shall be grown in her own orchard. In addition fresh cacao pods will be sourced directly from the local farming community while strengthening farmer capability and quality standards. Calabanga’s unique soil and climate near Mt. Isarog shall shape her cacao with distinctive depth and balance.

With over a decade of prior experience in the IT field, Ouradnik embraced agriculture, her new field of endeavor, with the same discipline she once applied to technology. With 500 grafted cacao seedlings from the Department of Agriculture–Bicol’s High Value Crops Development Program (HVCDP), she planted the first rows of what would become a thriving orchard. She added 1,000 seedlings in 2020 and another 1,000 in 2021, intercropping them with 300 pili trees.

Ourandnik attended Department of Agriculture (DA) and Agriculture Training Institute (ATI) learning programs on cacao production, nursery establishment, and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). The DA also provided farm inputs and tools that helped her manage the orchard during its early years. Today, Crave Cacao Orchard stands as a PhilGAP-certified farm and an ATI-certified Learning Site for Agriculture—the first and only cacao-based LSA in the entire Bicol Region.

Building a Cacao Community in Camarines Sur

In March 2023, driven by the desire to uplift and strengthen farmer capability and quality standards, Ouradnik co-founded the Calabanga Cacao Growers Association with Municipal HVCDP Coordinator Maria Nenita M. Cordova. The initiative quickly drew attention from the DA HVCDP and the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), leading to the association’s inclusion in the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plan (CFIDP)—a national program mandated to improve the livelihoods of coconut farmers.

The association currently has more than 100 registered farmer-members tending a combined 20,000 cacao trees. Through CFIDP, they received seedlings, organic fertilizers, vermicompost, pruning tools, mini chainsaws, grafting knives, grass cutters, and soil augers—interventions that strengthened both production and post-harvest capacity. The farmer group territory is now expanding to nearby Tinambac and Siruma.

“When we started, only a few were interested in cacao,” Ouradnik shares. “Some farmers had trees, but the pods were neglected or poorly processed. Now, all harvests are consolidated and transformed into chocolate bars and tablea.” She adds, “The cacao tree is truly a high-value crop,” she explains. “Every part can be used—leaves for handicrafts, branches for grafting, pods for compost or charcoal briquettes, shells for cacao tea. Even cacao juice can be turned into vinegar or wine. Nothing goes to waste.”

Global Recognition for Philippine Chocolate

Ouradnik credits the DA HVCDP and CFIDP for empowering both her farm and the Calabanga Cacao Growers Association. Their goal now is to become a model for cacao production in Bicol—one that inspires more farmers to plant cacao and process their own products.

“In the end, what we really want is for Philippine cacao and chocolates to gain worldwide recognition,” she says. “We want Filipinos to eat more Philippine-made chocolates because what we make is truly delicious—and truly ours.”

Like the chocolates she lovingly crafts, Lala Ouradnik’s work brings warmth, brightness, and hope. Through Crave Cacao Orchard and the growing cacao community in Calabanga, she is helping shape a future where Bicol’s farmers—and Bicol’s chocolates—take their rightful place on the world stage.

Bicol’s Strengths: Cacao and Pli

What sets Bicol apart is not just its volcanic soil or its growing network of cacao advocates. It is the region’s unique partnership between cacao and pili—two crops that thrive in the same climate, share similar supply chains, and complement each other in flavor and branding. Nowhere else in the Philippines can chocolate makers draw from a terroir where cacao and pili grow side by side, creating a natural foundation for origin-based products that are distinctly Bicolano.

As the DA updates its Cacao Industry Roadmap, and as global demand for ethical, traceable chocolate grows, Bicol stands at the threshold of becoming a premium cacao capital. The region’s future lies not in competing with mass producers, but in embracing what it already has: volcanic soil, resilient farmers, a heritage nut found nowhere else, and a growing community determined to make Bicol cacao known far beyond the archipelago.

The header features Lala Ouradnik of Crava Cacao at the Bishop Gainza Trade Fair in Naga City, September 2025. Photos were contributed or as indicated. This article was written by Jojo De Jesus for Dateline Ibalon.

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