Coffee is one of the most popular beverages globally, sought for its aroma and caffeine content. It is the most widely traded tropical product, and a growing market due to increasing consumption and stronger interest in specialty coffee innovations, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

To cap off their celebration of Coffee Month, The Philippine Coffee Board, Inc., in cooperation with the International Women’s Coffee Alliance Philippines, conducted a webinar entitled “Coffee Farming: We Believe, a testimonial from real coffee farmers who are making change” last October 29, 2022. The speakers in the webinar were all women, and Pacita “Chit” Juan, President and Co-Chair of Philippine Board, Inc. shared, “I don’t know if it’s by conscious choice or just the trend in the Philippines, but when we were getting farmers in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the names that came up were all women.”

In the thick forests of Mankayan, Benguet, Noemi Dado made use of her great-grandmother’s land to establish Agnep Heritage Farm and grow coffee in 2018. She shared her advocacy of sustainable coffee farming, which her family has thoroughly applied on their farm by growing coffee without cutting trees, producing their own organic fertilizers, and collaborating with indigenous farmers in the area. After four years, in 2020, they successfully harvested their first batch of arabica coffee beans.

Juliet Morales, a coffee farmer from Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya, shared that she started trading coffee in the 1980s, but stopped in 2002 because of low coffee prices. However, in 2015, she realized that she needed to go back to coffee farming and established Bumolo’s Integrated Farm, planting catimor, arabica, and robusta coffee varieties. She shared that she successfully expanded her farm and now has an association of 128 farmers. At the present, the farming cooperative now covers all stages of coffee production, from nursery to post-harvest processing, and even a coffee shop.

In Iloilo, Bibay Bionat, another coffee farmer, shared that her late father was originally into sugar cane farming, but shifted to coffee in 2012 in preparation for the possibility of sugar cane prices going down. They developed their robusta coffee farm, La Granja Cerza Roja, in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo. She shared that women farmers on their farm are the ones usually tasked with sorting beans because their attention to detail makes them better at doing the job. In a bid to have a more sustainable water source and additional income, her family built a rain catchment facility, where they also cultivate tilapia.

Another coffee farmer, Jocelyn Mamar, shared that she was originally a vendor in a public market before venturing into the coffee business. After selling in a public market for 17 years, Mamar shared that she eventually got interested in planting vegetables and fruits and started off by buying small lots, some of which already had coffee planted on them. Even if she didn’t have a background in coffee farming, her determination to learn through training and seminars, paved the way for her successful John and Marga Nursery Farm, which currently has farms in Luzon (Cavite), Visayas (Bacolod), and Mindanao (Davao del Sur). Though she has a variety of fruits and vegetables, coffee remains her main crop, specifically robusta and liberica.

Maria Teofannie Tutanes, a coffee farmer in Sultan Kudarat, shared that coffee farming was her family’s livelihood ever since she was born and through it, she and her three siblings were able to finish school. “Coffee is profitable,” she emphasized, just find the right skills related to coffee production, processing, and marketing. Currently, she is the owner of PMTZ Care Marketing and producer of Mnemo Coffee, a popular household coffee brand in Mindanao. In her talk, she also advocated for proper financial management to help coffee farmers and traders to prioritize their spending and save money.

“First, you could start with a small property, or you could have a big property, that doesn’t really matter too much, as long as you can grow coffee. You can grow a lot of varieties, and of course in different elevations, just match the soil and elevation with the variety, that’s possible. And the Philippines, by the way, grows all the major varieties, so that’s not the problem. The third is that[,] it’s never too late to get into coffee…..and there is a network of people willing to train you, to teach you, [and] to share their experiences as we’ve seen here people have learned from each other,” shared Guillermo “Bill” Luz, Trustee in the Philippine Coffee Board, Inc., and co-moderator of the webinar, in his concluding takeaway from the discussions.

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Originally named Coffee Break, it is the brainchild of the Philippine Coffee Board Inc. (PCBI) led by founding trustee and current director Guillermo “Bill” Luz.

He explains the impetus behind this event, “The first objective was to build up some brand awareness about Philippine coffee. Our other objective was to nudge consumer behavior towards specifying ‘Philippine coffee’ as opposed to just ordering ‘coffee.’  The concept was simple: offer free coffee in the mall, add entertainers to regale the crowd, and raise awareness for Philippine coffee.”

In 2008, Coffee Break evolved into Coffee Origins, with greater emphasis on where the coffee beans come from. Luz elaborates, “We moved into ‘Origins’ to show that Philippine coffee was being grown in different parts and elevations of the country, and each region had their specialties.” He adds, “The more that origin is in demand, the better it is for the farmers in that community. Increased demand can mean more jobs, more income, for a community. And if the farmers process the beans properly to maintain their quality, that means higher values for the community.”

Our intention was to build up demand in Philippine coffee so more people would go into coffee production.

Indeed, Coffee Origins has succeeded in raising awareness about Philippine coffee and its origins for the past 15 years. Luz shares, “the concept of Origins is now being better appreciated. More coffee retailers and cafés now indicate where their coffee is grown (e.g., Kitanglad, Matutum, Cordillera, Apo, etc.).

To better appreciate the Coffee Origins, Philippine Coffee Board was also the trailblazer in farm tours in cooperation with its Philippine Coffee Network

Today PCBI works tirelessly to build the Philippine coffee brand. But it has moved to a more “Seed to Shelf” or “Farm to Table” approach according to Luz. We are closely working at how to create nurseries for seed and seedling production because that is the starting point of coffee. Moreover, as production increases, people will need to learn more about how to process and mill their beans so they can get the best flavor and value of their beans.”

Written by Anne Marie “Nana” Ozaeta
This article was first published in The Ultimate Coffee Guide, 2017

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Selling coffee branded Philippine-made has become a marketing trend for cafes. It has become a way to appeal to coffee drinkers who want to drink sustainable coffee while supporting the local industry. But selling coffee with Philippine origins comes with a lot of responsibilities, according to Ros Juan, the chief coffee extractor of Commune Café and Bar.

Juan spoke in an online session of KainCon organized by the Philippine Coffee Board to discuss the following considerations for running a café with Philippine coffee.

Get to know your coffee

Café owners should be able to tell where their coffee comes from. There are times when coffee traders might not be fully knowledgeable about their products and could wrongly market their coffee as locally made when it is actually not.

It is better to connect with coffee farmers or organizations like the Philippine Coffee Board which works directly with coffee farmers.

If a café owner is starting out and wants to buy Philippine coffee in small quantities, they can contact the Philippine Coffee Board as they have a database of coffee farmers who will cater to the specific needs of café owners. But if a café owner is seeking to acquire large quantities of coffee, they should go ahead and work directly with coffee farmers.

The same applies to cafe owners who want to acquire roasted coffee instead of processing coffee beans on their own. Cafe owners should work with coffee roasters who source their coffee directly from farmers.

It takes a lot of research and sampling to verify if coffee is really made locally. At times, labels like Kalinga coffee or Sagada coffee are used arbitrarily when the coffee was not even grown in the locations the label pertains to. Thus it is important for cafe owners to get involved in the local coffee community to familiarize themselves with all the local coffee sources.

Part of this is also learning the difference between each coffee species. There are four species of coffee, mainly arabica, robusta, liberica, and excelsa. It is important for cafe owners to study all four coffee species and be able to taste their difference so that they will have an idea if they are getting the right kind of coffee from their sources.

The price and quality of coffee

Coffee is available at varying levels of quality. But whether coffee is of the highest or lowest quality, each quality level of coffee has its own market and corresponding price.

Specialty coffee is sold for high prices because they require a lot of labor to produce. In contrast, there are commercial-grade coffees that farmers are able to sell in large quantities because the standards for production are less stringent.

On the bottom are rejects, which can still be sold but at low prices for certain markets. Café owners are discouraged from using low-quality coffee in their cafés.

When starting a café, it is tempting to offer specialty coffee, but café owners need to consider that it is going to cost them more, and thus they would have to charge more for it. This might not work for certain cafés depending on their location and market. It is therefore crucial to study the surrounding market and see which coffee products best suit the business.

Price also sets the expectations of customers. If coffee is sold cheap, customers will not expect them to be of high quality. But as price increases, cafe owners will need to do more to deliver value for the price they charge with. This means investing in ambiance and customer service.

More importantly, cafe owners must be truthful about the ingredients they are using and price their products accordingly. If customers feel that they are being cheated, they will feel resentful of the café and will probably not return.

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According to Andrew Defrancesco, the pages pull you in until it’s impossible to tear yourself away from them. The black-and-white photography form an imagery of the world of Philippine coffee – its people, traditions and cultures, the wisdom and hard work needed to bring forth magic from the bean to your cup.

Annotated by Francisco’s caption essays, you will go on a journey. It’s not an easy one. There are the roadside sari-sari stores that mark the highway en route to the highland farms in Benguet, welcome pit stops amidst the high-altitude chill. The coffee trees dotting the foothills of Mount Halcon, still tended today by the Angan, an indigenous people residing near Paitan in Oriental Mindoro. The picturesque robusta trees growing on the Maranao farms near lake Lanao―a heartrending sight after the violent destruction of  Marawi City.

“Here then is my very personal experience of Philippine coffee―from the north to south, from the farm to the cup, from me to you,” writes Francisco. And indeed, A Coffee Journal is his personal journey through nearly 25 years in the coffee business.

Beginning operations in his mother’s garage in 1994, Francisco set out to learn the coffee business from seedling to drink. Armed with a notebook and a camera, he documented and compiled as much as he could, actively seeking out, as he writes, “living persons, as elderly as possible, to recount the world of coffee as it was in their earlier years.” His research took him all over the country, from lowlands to remote high altitudes, enduring unforgiving roads and rough weather. Wherever he went, he sought out stories and vignettes. What he presents to us in this book is a disappearing world that few of us will ever know. A Coffee Journal is a valuable visual narrative of coffee life in the Philippines at a particular period of history.

It is a vivid and romantic world, full of sensory adventure. Think of the white blooms of the coffee trees unfurling with the scent of jasmine. He shows us the coffee seeds, dropped on leaves of calla lilies, the remains of coffee cherries eaten by nocturnal rats and fruit bats in Miarayon, Bukidnon. In time, these will fall to the ground and germinate into seedlings. He gives us vignettes of the life of the small-cafe farmers who must intercrop coffee with sayote, peppercorn, bananas, calamansi, and other crops to augment their income till the next coffee harvest. He shows us how the story of coffee is the story of the farmers, harvesters, roasters, traders, retailers, and drinkers. Francisco reveals a rich tapestry of the individuals, subcultures, and traditions comprising the world of Filipino coffee.

A Coffee Journal is a tribute to the people whose hard work brings coffee to our tables. It is a good, solid documentation of the Philippine coffee history. But most of all, it is a love letter expressing Francisco’s enduring passion for coffee, a romance that has consumed him for a quarter of a decade, and possibly for an entire lifetime, Reading this book will also make you fail in love with coffee.

written by Troy Barrios / The Ultimate Coffee Guide Vol. XII Iss. 2

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Women are natural peacemakers.

In the case of Sulu Royal Coffee, the peacemaking is literal.

Princess Kumala “Lalah” Shug Elardo, of the Royal House of the Sultanate of Sulu, was born in Panamao, a remote, high conflict area in Sulu. She grew up in Zamboanga, but found herself back in the village where she was born in 2007 when she had to accompany her daughter who worked as the municipal medical officer in the area. “She volunteered to go there because no doctors would like to go there,” Princess Lalah says. “I was challenged because even I have not been there for so long.”

During her stay, Princess Lalah, a former social worker, noticed that a lot of the people were jobless. “I saw the women carrying pails of water, the men are carrying guns,” she recounts. “I thought of doing something. There must be something better.”

Coffee production caught her attention because she would see people laying down coffee beans on the dirt road so that they could intentionally be run over by vehicles. “Sinasadya nila para madepulp. Wala silang machines, parang wala talaga silang knowhow on coffee. (Doon) ko naisip ang kape.”

It all started with water
The first project that brought the community together was the construction of a system that would bring water to the village from a mountain source four kilometers away. “(Since) it’s going down,maybe we can do it through gravity, because I have seen some places in Luzon na may ganun.”

Not everyone was on board at first. “Sabi nila nobody would come, because this is a conflict area. I told (them) wala nga pupunta dito kung wala pupuntahan. We should do something.”

They estimated that the project would be done in 90 days. They finished in 21. “Kasi nung nakita na ng iba na may chance na yung tubig, everybody participated,” Princess Lalah shares. “Narealize nila ‘yung group efforts can really produce results.”

Picking the best beans
Princess Lalah tried to harness this newfound spirit of unity. “Nakikita ko naman ‘yung coffee, nandoon lang, mga tao, nandiyan, walang ginagawa, sabi ko siguro mas maganda kung nasa coffee na lang tayo.”

It took some time to convince the locals to try their luck with coffee because of the negative experiences associated with its production. Coffee can only be harvested once a year, and because of bad production practices, was sold for cheap. Princess Lalah was determined to change this. “Sabi ko, ‘subukan nating gawing mahal,” she says.

She began attending seminars on coffee production, meeting the members of the Philippine Coffee Board, of which she is now a director, along the way. “Ang concept ko talaga noon, baguhin ang quality. Ang business, wala pa akong alam. Hindi ko pa alam kung papaano ko siya i-trade o ano, basta ayusin ang quality para maibenta ng mataas at mag-inom tayo ng magandang kape.”

One of their first products was civet coffee, or coffee beans processed through the digestive tract of the civet cat that is harvested
in its droppings. Princess Lalah shares that since civet coffee wasn’t drunk in the area, she received her first batch free. She sold it in Manila and returned the money to the farmers. “Sabi nila, ‘galing yan sa kape?’ Yung isa, ayaw talaga maniwala. It was the beginning. Sabi niya, meron palang pera sa kape.”

A woman’s touch
Slowly, the community began to refine their processes. Princess Lalah credits this to the work of the local women. “Ang women kasi, mabusisi at sa tingin ko rin, mas madali silang maniwala, lalo na kung babae ang (mag-explain) sa kanila,” Princess Lalah says. “Meticulous ang mga babae, nakikita nila ang hindi dapat, madali sila magfollow.”

She explained that she fully earned the trust of the community after she set up a daycare program for the local children. “Unti-unti, napansin ko na paisa-isa lumalapit yung mga asawa nila kasi sabi ko taga rito ako, although yung asawa ko military, syempre ang puso ko, nandito pa rin. But kung ako ang tataanungin, ayaw ko ng may away, ayaw ko ng may gulo kasi both sides, nasasaktan din ako,” she says. “Nagumpisa kami noong naniniwala na sila.”

This was in 2008. They didn’t start earning until the next year, and profits have been growing since.

Better lives through coffee
The People’s Alliance for Progress Multi-Purpose Cooperative (PAPMPC) was set up in 2010, producing fine coffee under the Sulu Royal Coffee brand. The coffee is planted on 124 hectares of Agrarian Reform land, with room for expansion.

Each partner farmer started earning an average of P15,000 annually in 2009, which has risen to about P200,000 in 2018. Green beans are sold at P300-P350 a kilo while roasted ones fetch Php500-700 a kilo.

The cooperative currently has 374 members and has inspired 11 sister cooperatives, for a total of 2200 farmers. None of the members have ever had to take out a loan.

In between coffee harvest seasons, the farmers supplemented their income by intercropping with plants like ginger, turmeric, kamote, gabi, ube, bananas, and various vegetables. They are also currently exploring other agri-products with assistance from the Department of Agriculture, STI, and DOST.

The farmers’ lives have changed for the better. They have been able to send their children to school (In a speech Princess Lalah said that by 2016, 28 students have graduated from college, 230 from high school, and 350 from elementary).

They have been able to put up houses and now have a better water system. There is peace and order in the area, and government workers have set up health centers and the like.

Other people have started their own businesses. A lot of former insurgents have laid down their guns in exchange for farming. “Kasi nasubukan nila to live with their families, with their children and their wives. Masarap daw ganun,” Princess Lalah says. “I told them, don’t just look at coffee as coffee. Look at it as money. It’s the money that you plant, not just coffee because this coffee will give you money forever, even though it’s only (harvested) once a year. That training in the hills will not give you anything.”

The little coop that could
The PAPMPC continues to grow its distribution network. Last year, they penned and agreement with Universal Robina Corporation (URC) with the help of GoNegosyo. An investor has offered to inject a sizable sum into their operations which will allow them to buy new machines and upgrade their facilities.

The coop also recently purchased property where they plan to set up a training center for other people in the province, since a lot of groups have been wanting to replicate the coop’s model. “I think Philippine coffee has a good future,” Princess Lalah said. “Ang kailangan lang dito ay pagandahin ang mga magkakape, bigyan ng tamag attention ang mga coffee farming and farmers. We have good coffee in the Philippines.”

With coffee gaining such prestige all over the world even as demand continues to outpace supply, there is potentially a lot of money to be made, especially if the beans are farmed and processed with care. “I think sa coffee, nadiyan ang market because the demand is so high and the supply is so low,” Princess Lalah says. Makikita mo naman sa coffee shop. Kailangan ng kape sa Pilipinas. You don’t have to look for the market. It’s the market that will look for coffee.”

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“For the foreseeable future, our path lies in becoming a niche producer of quality coffees for export and domestic consumption rather than a large volume grower.” (Guillermo Luz)

WHAT IS THE OUTLOOK ON PHILIPPINE COFFEE FROM A LOCAL, REGIONAL, AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE?
“The Philippines was once a major producer of coffee. We are one of the few countries that can produce the four main types of beans—Robusta, Excelsa, Arabica, and Liberica or Barako. For the foreseeable future, our path lies in quality coffees for export and domestic consumption rather than a large volume grower.”

HOW HAS THIS EVOLVED OVER THE YEARS?
“The biggest change in the last 20 years is that coffee consumption has grown tremendously. Today, we consume about three to four times as much as we produce. Demand has far outpaced the supply. Thus, the country has had to import lots more coffee. The tragedy is that our coffee-drinking habits are making farmers in other countries rich. If we produced more coffee, I’m convinced those beans would sell here because the Philippines has quality coffee.”

HOW CAN PHILIPPINE SPECIALTY COFFEE BE MORE COMPETITIVE IN THE GLOBAL COFFEE SCENE?
“For specialty coffee to become competitive, I believe we will need to organize the growers so we can build up larger pools of supply and build up quality. With larger inventories, we will become a more reliable supplier to international markets. The consolidated inventory will enable us to effectively and confidently engage in strong marketing efforts because we know we will have the supply and quality by consolidating growers into cooperatives or network of growers. They have also been able to consolidate their marketing efforts so that a brand and reputation has developed around certain countries like Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, and others.”

WHAT IS NEEDED FOR THE PHILIPPINES TO BE GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE IN THE SPECIALTY COFFEE ARENA?
“Once we consolidate growers, we should be able to train them to increase and improve the quality of their yields. The larger volumes will introduce economies of scale for processing and other post-harvest activities. PCBI is studying how to consolidate growers so we can gather together larger supplies of quality beans for export market. Once we expand the overseas market for quality coffee beans from the Philippines, we will need to focus on building seedling nurseries. We expect that more people will want to become growers or present growers who will want to expand their existing farms.”

WHERE DO YOU FORESEE PHILIPPINE SPECIALTY COFFEE GOING?
“I am pretty confident that the future for specialty coffee is bright. The local consumption is quite strong and continues to grow while foreign markets are just beginning to discover Philippine coffee. And don’t forget—we have many Filipino living abroad. I’d like to think many of them would be proud to drink and serve Philippine coffee.”

Guillermo Luz is a founding trustee of the PCBI. He is responsible for gathering the coffee stakeholders back in 2002 to what is now a 15-year-old authority in coffee. Bill is also in the National Competitiveness Council and an active member of business organizations. He is an avid coffee drinker and has also tried to plant coffee. 

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On October 16, 2017, Manila Marriott became the very first hotel to open a dining outlet inside the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) with Manila Life Café. Aside from offering a delectable menu of Filipino favorites (Sisig Nachos and Inasal Tacos are just the start), Manila Life also prides itself in being a champion of local produce.

Pancit Luglog

“Manila Life Café is a showroom of Manila’s current food and beverage state: highly sophisticated in some areas and raw in others,” Brendan Mahoney, Food and Beverage Director of Manila Marriott Hotel, told The Ultimate Coffee Guide.

Sunrise Plate

“Manila Marriott’s motto in food and beverage is to ‘Go Local’…our coffee is aligned with supporting local farmers, so we sell and support locally grown coffee,” Mahoney added, pointing out that they also offer local coffee as part of the hotel’s room amenities and main restaurant, as well as banquets and catering events at the luxury hotel.

According to Mahoney, after a series of tastings with a local coffee expert, the rare Benguet Peaberry―with its slightly fruity yet deeply rich flavor―rose to the top and became the star of Manila Life Café.

“Philippine coffee is not well  known in the world stage,” he stated. “Filipino food has always been globally under marketed, so what better way to show people the streets of Manila than in a sophisticated but approachable environment delivered by our five-star trained Filipino hosts?”

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It was a question that Victor Mah, President of the ASEAN Coffee Federation (ACF), posed to everyone at ACF’s 2nd Board Meeting. He particularly mentioned Philippines, Myanmar, and Vietnam because the three countries can boast of their centuries-old tradition of growing and consuming coffee.

In the Philippines, coffee has a history as rich as its flavor. In the 1800s, Barako commanded five times the price of other Asian coffee beans as we became the fourth largest exporter.

Today, Filipino coffee consumption far outweighs production. Vietnam produces thousands of metric tons that are enough to supply the global demand while Myanmar was recently hailed as Asia’s newest origin of specialty coffee. Fortunately, there are still various places in the Philippines where coffee has gone through the proper process from seed to cup. The constant challenge is how to make coffee production sustainable which will also make it profitable.

The Ultimate Coffee Guide‘s articles unravels the Philippines’ coffee journey as we discover more about where we are and where our coffee culture is headed.

Photos by Ros Juan and PCBI

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