Coffee farmers to get P192-M boost from DA

Coffee farmers in the country including those in Cebu will get a boost with the recent thrust of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to support them  in order to make the coffee and cacao industries more competitive.

The DA recently announced a P192 million budget to support the “mocha” trend.

The DA would implement the vision of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to make these industries competitive because they could contribute to the country’s food security, said Teodoro S. Solsoloy, DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research assistant director, in a statement.

“The P192 million budget is to support and boost production of coffee and cacao by setting up Cacao Agribusiness Zones Development (CAZD) areas. We will be partnering with Nestle Philippines in setting up a mother plant that will be located in Cagayan Valley,” said Solsoloy.

The proposed nursery is projected to produce 200,000 Robusta coffee seedlings every year through the Cagayan Valley Upland Research Outreach Station in Aglipay, Quirino, while Cacao Agribusiness Zones Development Areas will be set up in Davao City, Compostela Valley, Zamboanga del Norte, Palawan, and Camarines Sur.

“These zones will be the nucleus of agribusiness activities and will deliver assistance to cacao farmers,” said Solsoloy.

Cebuano coffee brand owner Glenn Anthony Soco said he was happy with the development because it would help local farmers tap the opportunities fueled by the continued economic growth of the country.

Soco’s reactions came as he opened his 40th Coffee Dream outlet last Friday in Cebu.

Today, coffee is being seen as a social drink with coffee shops offering them in different gourmet flavors including mocha, which is coffee mixed with chocolate.

“We are seeing continued growth in revenues in all our branches and we are still opening more branches until  2015,” said Soco who set up a P70 million budget for expansions until 2015.

This year, they have already opened three new branches – one in Pacific Mall, Cebu IT Park and the latest in Gorordo Avenue in Camella Homes sales office.

Two more will open – one in Davao and another in Cagayan de Oro which is the third outlet for both cities.

While Coffee Dream would still source all their coffee beans locally, other coffee shop brands would still import beans from other countries like Vietnam which would be actually a lost opportunity for the local farmers, Soco said.

“There is demand for beans and if only our local farmers can produce more, these shops will not need to import. As much as possible, we try to encourage shops to buy local because it will benefit the local economy,” said Soco.

According to Solsoloy, recent figures showed that the country imports some 100,000 metric tons (MT) of coffee beans worth P10 billion annually mainly from Vietnam which has steadily increased over time because of the increasing demand from coffee shops.

“We also import around 20,000 MT of cocoa beans from major African cocoa producers like Nigeria and the Ivory Coast which cost us an average of $42 million every year,” he said.

According to Solsoloy, the Philippines was among the countries capable of growing coffee and cocoa, but our farmers could only produce 25,000 MT of coffee and cocoa yearly.

Vietnam, which is the world’s largest coffee producer, yields 1.4 million MT yearly.

Solsoloy said he hoped that the department’s interventions would raise the cocoa yied to as much as 100,000 MT a year.

In Cebu, farmers in Tudela town are already growing coffee and some are also starting to grow in Alcoy and Asturias.

“If these farmers can get access to more assistance in terms of technologies on how to produce more and better quality yields, then we can only expect coffee shop operators here to also soon source their beans locally. That way we can help farmers and our economy in general,” said Soco.