HIGHLANDERS’ ENTREPRENEURSHIP ON HIGH NOTE

March 29, 2025 Metro BLISTT

DOST-Cordillera Assisted Projects

BAGUIO CITY

Business acumen of Cordillera people have gone a long way and they are making big waves not only domestically but internationally. Credit to government intervention and support through the Department of Science and Technology-Cordillera (DOST-CAR). Filled with desire and passion Eva Ritchelle Padua from Ampucao ,Itogon was Benguet’s first ‘bean to bar’ chocolate processor from locally sourced cacao. Padua’s perseverance paid off now the owner of Dulche Chocolate Inc. In just few years, Dulche Chocolate Inc. now transacting
business with New Zealand, Hong Kong, United States, South Korea, Australia and Canada.

More than a million peso income on the said transactions, Padua said during a forum sponsored by the DOST-CAR in Bagong Pilipinas
held recently at Paragon Hotel here. This year alone, New Zealand has ordered some six thousand bars of Dulche chocolate. Padua added she sourced cacao beans from Atok, Tuba, La Trinidad and Apayao where said product thrives. And all these years, her business has generated a modest number of jobs and lifted local farmers’ lives.

Based on DOST-CAR report, since 2017, Padua has been working to develop cacao industry in Benguet and in the region. ‘Her first attempt, made from a cacao pod she bought, was too bitter, but she didn’t give up until she found the right mix. While perfecting her recipe, she sold chocolate made from cacao from her town (Itogon).’ In 2022, she sought assistance from the DOST-CAR through PSTC-Benguet, to explore opportunities for the cacao industry in Baguio City and Benguet.

Padua is a benefactor of a P4.747 million project SWEET PH-C under DOST’s Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) – Women helping Women Innovate Social Enterprise (WHWWise) Program. Years later, Padua’s pioneering initiative aimed at transforming highland cacao industry in the city and Benguet expanded to benefit regional cacao industry in the Cordillera Region. In 2024, Dulche’s Chocolates was awarded for being the 2024 BPI SInag, recognizing the
Dulche Chocolate’s efforts in uplifting social enterprises in the country.

To sustain the region’s fast rising cacao industry, Padua appealed anew for government support – development in processing and post-harvest facilities, among others. Other multi-million pesos worth of DOST-CAR projects presented were Ibu’s Food Products (Bingko Muffns); SUNSHARE ,a renewable energy Blockchain market application aims to enable community members to exchange renewable energy generated by solar panels; and Advanced Robust Cooperative System (ARCS), an integrated Software-as-a Service (SAAS)
solution for cooperative management and regulatory compliance.

Primo Agatep/ABN