TO help boost the Philippine coffee industry, GCash, the Philippines’ No. 1 finance super app, partners with the Philippine Coffee Board Inc. (PCBI) to employ a science-based approach in planting 200,000 coffee trees across the country through GForest, its digital tree-planting movement.

The local coffee industry has been facing many challenges, with only 33 percent of coffee beans in the market produced locally due to various reasons such as lack of capital, limited knowledge on tree cultivation, and pest control among small and backyard farmers.

Even after the coffee beans are harvested, farmers must also face competitive pricing from international exporters.

GCash and PCBI aim to educate and encourage Filipinos to support local products and at the same time, provide opportunities for women, which compose 50 percent of the farmers.

The Philippine Coffee Board is a private sector-led group, established in 2002 by coffee experts to develop and promote quality Filipino coffee through technical assistance and credit programs to farmers and help them market and promote local coffee for domestic and export markets.

This project will provide much-needed long-term support to local farmers in Cavite, Benguet, Iloilo, Davao and Basilan, enabling them to start their own backyard farms.

This program will also educate them on how to plant local coffee seedlings, learn the science of natural coffee farming and experience local brewing.

By the end of 2023, PCBI, on behalf of GCash, will begin planting 50,000 seedlings in identified areas such as Cavite and Benguet.