DAVAO CITY -- The award-winning Malagos Chocolate has earned another recognition after it was designated as "heirloom cacao" by the Heirloom Cacao Preservation (HCP) Fund.

The company announced its latest achievement on January 15.

"Malagos Chocolate’s Puentespina Farm designated as HEIRLOOM producers of quality & flavor cacao beans at origin by the Heirloom Cacao Preservation Fund in partnership with the Fine Chocolate Industry Association (FCIA) & US Dept of Agriculture (USDA)! Mabuhay!" it said in its Facebook post.

Speaking to ABS-CBN News, Rex Puentespina of Puentespina Farm said this latest achievement will benefit the whole cacao industry in the country.

"Maka benefit ang tibook cacao industry as a whole... A rising tide raises all boats, buot pasabot tanan makinabang, because of this recognition makaingon najud ta nga ang Philippines naa na sa chocolate map of the world," he said in the vernacular.

(It will benefit the whole cacao industry...A rising tide raises all boats. This will pave the way for Philippine to gain spot in the chocolate map of the world.)

Puentespina explained that the environment where their cacao trees grow plays a major role in extracting the desired flavor of their fine chocolate products.

"Dili lang nga naa tay ingon ato nga genetic material naa kay variety ingon ato okay na. Ang genetic material, ang post harvest techniques, the way you ferment, the way you roast the beans, the way you grind the beans... Dili lang isa ang giistudyohan para maconsistent atong quality," he said.

(It doesn't mean we have this genetic material will just stick into it. We maximize the genetic materials from our post-harvest techniques, the way we ferment, the way we roast the beans, the way you grind the beans... We continuously do our research to preserve the quality of our cacaos.)

Puentespina Farm now joins 15 other heirloom cacao farmers around the world from Bolivia, Ecuador, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Tanzania and Madagascar.

This is also the 28th international award the farm has received since it started its operations in 2003.