'Chocolate princess' recalls challenges, seeks more success

ABOUT a year ago, Dalareich Polot was in California to receive the Goldman Sachs Global Women Leader Award, the first Filipina to win the recognition.

Polot, known as the «Chocolate Queen of Bohol,» said the award was the highest recognition she got in her life and was timely as she was deep into helping communities in Bohol devastated by Super Typhoon «Odette.»

«I got several awards over the past 10 years, but the Goldman Sachs Global Women Leader Award and attending the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in California was a very emotional moment I had after all the challenges we experienced during Super Typhoon 'Odette' in my province,» she added.

Fast forward to today, Polot continues to involve three communities in various districts in her province comprising more than 100 farmers in supplying her with raw materials for Dalareich Chocolate House located in Tagbilaran.

«We funded the training, fertilization and technical assistance for the farmers. We are also doing cacao inventory with the help of the PLDT-Smart Foundation and Huawei (Philippines). We put QR codes on the old cacao trees left after the typhoon to have the accurate number of cacao trees in the province. We hope we can do it in all municipalities in Bohol,» she said.

Also, the Philseed Foundation, founded by her and friends, started a cacao project in Zamboanga Sibugay to support farmers of the province. Polot hopes to undertake similar initiatives in different parts of Zamboanga and other provinces.

Not surprisingly, she used her cash prize from her Goldman Sachs award to assist farming communities in Bohol. Polot was also supported by corporate foundations who believed in her work for farming communities.

«I would say I'm so happy with the progress I saw since last year in our farming communities. I feel more positivity in terms of the quantity and cacao I get from the cacao farming communities here in Bohol,» she added.

On the business side of things, Polot's Dalareich Chocolate House continues to gradually expand its market reach, including for exports. The business has three main product lines: unsweetened chocolate (tableya), artisan chocolate bars (Ginto Chocolates), and chocolate-coated