Road map points the way to PH coffee industry comeback

COFFEE is among the most traded food commodities in the world. More than 9 billion kilograms of coffee is produced annually worldwide. Brazil has for decades been the biggest coffee producer. In 2023, it turned out 3,558,000 metric tons (MT) annually, or about a third of the global output, according to the Eleven Coffees website. Vietnam is a far second, with 1,830,000 MT.

Further down the list, at No. 24, is the Philippines, producing 27,000 MT, or a mere 0.2 percent of the world’s coffee production. That is lamentable, because in the early 1900s, we were the fourth-biggest coffee producer.

Coffee production and consumption have a long history in the Philippines. The first coffee plants were introduced by the Spanish colonizers in the 17th century. By the early 19th century, coffee had become a major export commodity of the Philippines, second only to tobacco.

Today, Indonesia, Thailand and even Laos outrank us in the coffee hierarchy in Southeast Asia.

Philippine coffee production is falling by 3.5 percent annually over the past 10 years, according to government figures. Ironically, the decline comes at a time that the country’s coffee consumption has been growing.

Filipinos love coffee. We drink coffee during breakfast and when we go out with friends. But the boom in the coffee market is driven mainly by the proliferation of coffee shops, which double as trendy social hubs for young urban professionals.

To meet the rising demand, coffee processors have to import 81 percent of their coffee requirements. That leaves many coffee growers in the lurch.

Majority of the coffee farms are between 1 and 2 hectares, too small to meet commercial-scale orders.

The Philippine Coffee Board Inc. (PCBI), the organization of coffee farmers, said they can only come up with 30,000 MT of coffee beans a year, way below the local demand of 150,000 MT.

“What’s disheartening is that many want to process, but there’s not enough production,” says PCBI Director Alejandro Mojica.

One of the biggest problems confronting coffee producers is the lack of seedlings, Mojica said. “The first thing we observed in order to address production is the need to meet the demand for seedlings. And the solution we see is for each region to have its own nurseries and promote it to the farmers.”

Building regional nurseries will not be cheap. “The government has to spend P600 million a year in 10 years to get to self-sufficiency, but those are very conservative figures, you can do maybe more than 1,000 seedlings per hectare,” says Pacita Juan, PCBI president and co-chairman.

The government has long recognized the struggles of the coffee industry and has made serious efforts to address them. Under Republic Act 7900, or the “High Value Crops Development Act,” coffee is a high-value crop that qualifies for government support in production, processing, marketing and distribution.

A more comprehensive strategy is laid out in the Philippine Coffee Industry road map 2017-2022, which was approved by the previous Duterte administration.

The road map aims to raise the country’s annual coffee output from 37,000 MT a year to 214,626 MT by 2022, boosting its coffee self-sufficiency level to 161 percent from a low 41.6 percent.

The road map guides stakeholders and government agencies in the “pursuit of inclusive growth models through value chain approach and to sustain increases in yields, incomes, improved farm productivity, as well as to enhance farmers’ technical capability and skills …”

Recent developments in the coffee industry — including heavy losses sustained during the Covid-19 pandemic — prompted the government to revise the road map in midstream. This time, the Departments of Agriculture, Science and Technology, and Trade and Industry worked together to establish specific timelines for achieving targets.

For the short-term phase from 2021 to 2025, the goal is to increase promotion on patronizing local coffee products. During the medium term (2026-2030), the focus is to help local processors to develop products that can compete in the international market.

The long-term goal (2031-2040) is to set up an online industry information database that can be easily accessed by the stakeholders.

The updated road map took into account other serious concerns facing the coffee industry, including low productivity and soil fertility, limited skills and technical know-how, and lack of postharvest facilities.

A Philippine Coffee Council will oversee the road map’s implementation, its members drawn from regional and provincial coffee councils.

If the country’s coffee industry is to stage a comeback, the government must be committed to support the stakeholders all the way.