Durian-like cacao fruit excites farmer, netizens

Acorporateexecutive turned on-the-ground farmer in Malungon town, Sarangani province, shared his unique experience of harvesting a cacao fruit whose pulp has similarities with the exotic durian fruit.

“My first time harvesting this kind of fruit. Durian like cacao or cacao like durian?” Edmundo Cejar remarked when this writer dropped by his farm on Tuesday, March 21.

Now a septuagenarian, the former company executive, who retired a decade ago from a jet-setting corporate life with a multinational firm based in the Netherlands, came back to the country to live a simple life as a hinterland farmer.

The harvest Cejar referred to is his first crop of what he called “A durian in a cacao! Its flesh has the aroma and sweet taste of a durian.”

Unlike the usual cacao, “the flesh covering the seeds can be eaten fresh and it tastes like durian,” he said. Unlike durian that its fruit hangs from its trunk and branches, Cejar said his durian cacao bears its fruit at the tip of its branches.

Engineer Nenita Barroso, of the Department of Trade and Industry in Sarangani who was present when the durian cacao was opened, nodded in agreement that it is durian-like, saying the pulp indeed smells like the exotic king of fruits. “The taste is a mix of jackfruit and durian,” she said.

In his excitement, Cejar posted his durian cacao on Facebook and it went viral, drawing thousands of reactions, comments and queries from netizens. The post has been shared more than 5,000 times.