Davao City-based farming group wins silver at Cacao of Excellence Award

Saloy Organic Farmers Association was recognized as one of the best cacao producers in the world

BY JOHN LEGASPI

Feb 13, 2024 09:30 AM

  

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Saloy Organic Farmers Association (SOFA), a small group of cacao farmers based in Davao City, brought pride to the Philippines by winning the 2023 Cacao of Excellence Silver Award at the prestigious Cacao of Excellence Award. The ceremony happened in Amsterdam during CHOCOA 2024, an annual marketplace celebrating quality cacao and chocolate and sustainable farming.

Saloy Organic Farmers Association 

With its mission to empower a new generation of cacao producers, the Cacao of Excellence Award collected over 222 entries from 52 cocoa-originating countries. Out of the roster, it selected its top 50 producers, which were awarded gold, silver, and bronze awards in various regions—Africa and the Indian Ocean, Asia and the Pacific, Central America and the Caribbean, and South America. SOFA, the only representative from the Philippines, was one of the recipients of the silver award in Asia and the Pacific region.

Led by Judith Gabasa, SOFA has been one of the seven farming partners of award-winning homegrown brand Auro Chocolate. Their partnership started in 2015, and since 2021, the Davao City farming association has been part of the brand’s Chocolate Organic Conversion program. The program aims to “provide assistance to the community in their efforts to convert to organic farming practices.” 

Receiving the award on behalf of SOFA were Auro Chocolate’s co-founders and managing directors Kelly Go and Mark Ocampo. “It’s the second time for our farming partners to be awarded this prestigious award,” the brand posted on Instagram. “A new Philippine origin no less! Saloy!”

Also present at the event was Philippine Ambassador to The Netherlands J. Eduardo Malaya, who praised SOFA and Auro Chocolate’s efforts in bringing Filipino cacao to the world stage. “We commend Auro and the Saloy Farmers’ passion and dedication in making the Filipino-made chocolate recognized around the globe,” he said. “Philippine chocolate has come of age and is now world-class.”

What is the most studied language in the world?

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According to the language learning app Duolingo, English remained the most popular choice among learners in 2023.

The top-10 most studied languages worldwide:

1. English
2. Spanish
3. French
4. German
5. Japanese
6. Korean
7. Italian
8. Hindi
9. Chinese
10. Portuguese

The map above shows the most studied language by country.

Duolingo provides learning apps to study over 40 languages, ranging from English, French, and Spanish to less commonly studied languages such as Welsh, Irish, and Swahili.

• All in all, in 2023 English remained No. 1 most studied language in 122 countries on the app.
• In 2023, Korean jumped past Italian for the No. 6 spot in the rankings. A large part of the increase is attributed to the fandom surrounding Korean music and movies. South America has seen a surge in learners taking on Korean, as has India.
• Russian, which previously held the No. 10 spot, was ousted from the top-10 by Portuguese in 2023.

After Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the popularity of the Russian language in the world dropped, with courses of Russian closing in many European countries. The popularity of learning the Ukrainian language, vice versus, increased.

Almost 40% of those learning Ukranian list their top motivation as a way to connect with other people, said Duolingo’s content editor Cindy Blanco: “It is a way people may show solidarity during the war.”

Cindi Blanco.

The top countries that had the most users learning Ukrainian were the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Poland. Next on the list was, surprisingly, Russia — and, unexpectedly, Ukraine itself, where many former Russian speakers no longer wish to converse in Russian in their daily lives.

• One of the most prevalent trends among younger users was their interest in learning less common languages: much of the interest in Ukrainian was driven by ‘Gen Z’ users.
• Growing interest in Asian languages has been also strongly influenced by younger learners: 86% of the people learning Japanese and 76% of those learning Chinese were under 30.

In 2024, the company expects that Asian languages will continue growing in popularity.

After the onset of the Israeli-Hamas war, interest in Arabic and Hebrew is likely to change as well. It will be interesting to see whether this will affect the top-10 ranking in 2024.