Origin Trip #53: Davao, Philippines, 2025

We arrived in Davao in a market that had made cocoa farming, for the first time in a generation, briefly lucrative for anyone willing to sell wet beans to the nearest trader.

That is a real temptation for a family that needs cash this week, and we do not blame anyone who takes it. Our answer is to make the relationship worth more than the spot price: a guaranteed buyer, a price agreed in advance, and a profit share on top.

Every farmer in the group sold to us this year. We committed to the same arrangement for the next three harvests before we left.

We also spent two days with the nursery team grafting seedlings, which is the least glamorous and most important work happening at this origin.