Sourcing its cacao beans directly from farmers in Davao, Auro Chocolate not only crafts its chocolate from bean to bar in the Philippines, it goes that one step further in involving itself in every step of the process.

The founders of Auro, Mark Ocampo and Kelly Go, first discovered the Philippines to be a treasure chest of various varieties of premium cacao during a trip to Chicago in 2010. Mark and Kelly stumbled across a small batch chocolate maker sourcing its fine flavour beans from Davao, Philippines. It had since then been Mark and Kelly’s ambition to showcase the Philippines as a producer of both fine cacao and artisan chocolate. Today, Mark and Kelly source a formulated balance of Forastero, Trinitatio, and Criollo beans from in and around the city of Davao. For Auro’s ‘Reserve Collection’, which includes the Tupi 70% bar, the collection is intended to highlight specific areas in Davao, showcasing the distinct flavours depending on where the cacao was harvested.

Pure Criollo cacao made its way into Philippine agriculture in the mid-late 17th century, arriving on Spanish trading ships from Mexico. Since then, the archipelagic country has become the primary producer of cacao in Southeast Asia, with the majority of the country’s cacao production hailing from the Davao region. Cacao is one of the Philippines’ key crops for growing potential in the international markets. Whilst the country produces and exports a great deal of its cacao, some over 10,000 metric tons, it also imports a great deal more of fermented cacao from other countries. This imbalance of producing and importing cacao owes itself to the mass production of chocolate confectionery in the Philippines. The Philippines consists mainly of smallholder farmers, supplying to small to medium manufacturers, and the country’s demand for cocoa is far greater than that of what it can produce. And what hinders increased production includes the lack of post-harvest knowledge and equipment.

Auro set itself a challenge to address and act upon the common issues that cacao farmers are facing in the Philippines, from the lack of infrastructure to poor farm-management to post-harvest knowledge. Auro works with the farmers of Davao by offering constant support in the form of educating the farmers on international quality cacao standards and teaching them skills such as organic farming, post-harvest practices, and fundamental business management.

Beyond its actions, Auro’s name reverberates pure gold too. Kelly and Mark explain that originally the name had been “Oro”, meaning gold in Filipino and Spanish, however they quickly realised that many companies around the Philippines were already using this name. Instead, the pair wanted to do something a little different, yet still have its name reflect gold. The pair took the chemical symbol for gold, AU, and added this to Filipino “gold”. Mark and Kelly go on to explain “We believe that like gold, sometimes farmers and cacao are not given the value that they deserve. Gold isn’t fully appreciated in it’s raw form, but with work, people see its true value.”

Auro Chocolate In The Chocolate Library