7-Eleven City Blends launches new campaign

COFFEE lovers will now have more reasons to drink 7-Eleven City Blends coffee, as it launches “A Cup of Thankful” campaign where a portion from every purchase of a 12-oz. City Blends cup will be given to Filipino coffee farmers in the hopes of revitalizing the coffee industry in the country.

“A Cup of Thankful” invites everyone to experience a new way to drink City Blends coffee with a special interactive 12-oz. coffee cup design, where customers can simply write what they are thankful for on the cup.

Through these difficult times, City Blends encourages everyone to take a moment to be grateful for the good things in life, especially for the farmers that make their coffee a daily dose of positivity.

7-Eleven local licensee, Philippine Seven Corp. (PSC), revealed the need to bring awareness about what is happening to the local coffee industry. Previously, the Philippines was part of the top coffee exporters of the world, but over the years, the industry experienced a decline causing the country to import coffee instead.

Every year, Filipinos consume 65,000 metric tons of coffee but only 30,000 metric tons are supplied locally – and demand is still projected to rise. Currently, only 200,000 Filipinos are in the local coffee industry, where problems like low buying price, outdated production practices, unproductive coffee trees, diversification into other crops, and a lack of post-harvest production and processing facilities continue to hinder profitability.

All these pressing concerns urged PSC to take action and help local farmers through 7-Eleven City Blends. For every 12-oz. cup, 50 centavos will be donated to the local farmers through PSC’s partnership with the Foundation for Sustainable Coffee Excellence (FSCE).

Cultivating coffee beans is becoming increasingly difficult because of several problems that farmers face according to Cristy Salbino Carame, a local coffee grower. The changing climate brings unpredictable weather, prolonged dry periods, and sometimes intense downpours which are all detrimental to the growth of coffee. Aside from this, the farmers also lack machineries that hasten production and are facing difficulties in getting water for their farms. With this campaign, PSC and FSCE aim to directly address some of these problems, and the farmers are seeing hope for the growth of local coffee.

“This campaign is a channel of God’s Blessing to us, farmers, because we will be able to live as healthy, safe and productive people. We are grateful for FSCE for providing educational assistance and livelihood programs. We cannot do this alone and we need all the help we can get,” Ms. Carame added.