Part Two
DAVAO CITY—Jorge Mendoza Judan perks up when coffee is mentioned.
Judan, board director and corporate secretary of the Philippine Coffee Board (PCB), estimates the local consumption of coffee to have increased to 120,000 metric tons (MT) in recent years.
His number, however, runs counter to Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) data, which show production in 2011 reaching only 88,526 MT. The agency attached to the Department of Agriculture (DA) said this figure was a 6.35-percent decline from the previous year’s 94,536 MT.
The number of bearing trees also declined by 1.65 percent, accounted also by the decline in the area planted to coffee by 1.43 percent, or to the current 119,657 hectares from 121,399 hectares in 2010.
Judan said the lackluster yield is the effect of crop conversion through the years. The PCB estimated the decline in production of coffee from 70,000 MT five years ago to only 30,000 to date. The DA corroborated this with reports of crop shifting to Señorita banana in Compostela Valley and to rubber in Zamboanga City.
The DA further said many processors of coffee in the country belong to local small and medium processors of roasted beans and ground coffee.
The largest soluble-coffee processor is Nestlé Philippines Inc., which accounts for 80 percent of the instant-coffee markets in the Philippines, according to data from the DA. Universal Robina Corp. and Commonwealth Foods Corp. follow Nestlé, a Swiss transnational food- and drink-processing company.
Processing
THE DA said coffee is processed into various product forms: green beans, roasted beans, ground coffee and instant coffee.
Green beans are used by industrial users, for further processing into roasted beans, ground coffee or instant coffee. Roasted beans are intended for grinding and are highly in demand among industrial buyers and, to a certain extent, institutional users.
Ground coffee is derived from roasted beans that have been crushed. Ground coffee is mainly for brewing and has a better flavor than instant coffee.
Instant soluble coffee includes pure soluble coffee, single-serve sachet mix, 3-in-1 mixtures and ready-to-drink. It is easy to prepare and has a lower price compared to ground coffee. There are also 5-in-1 and 7-in-1 coffee variants with added ingredients, presented by sellers as having some health benefits, the DA further said.
It added that there is also specialty coffee, “which is made from the high-quality green beans roasted and brewed according to well-established standards.”
Specialty coffee products include Arabica blends, organic coffee, Civet coffee (Alamid coffee) and others, which cater to niche markets, the DA explained.
Net importer
THE DA said the country has been a net importer of coffee since 1997.
The growing number of specialty coffee shops and foreign brands contributes to the continuous increase in the country’s imports.
Imports in 2011 were dominated by unroasted green Robusta and extracts, essences and concentrates of coffee, which accounted for 39 percent and 34 percent of the total value of coffee imports, respectively, data from the DA revealed.
The DA said the bulk of value shipments, consisting of raw, ground and unground, other than roasted and unroasted, extracts, preparations, came from Vietnam ($50 million, or 42 percent of total imports), followed by Indonesia ($25 million, or 21 percent); Malaysia ($22 million, or 18 percent); Thailand ($11 million, or 9 percent); and South Korea at (4 percent).
Citing the United Nations Trade Map statistics portal (https://comtrade.un.org/data/), the DA said the Philippine imports of coffee amounted to about 23,766 MT in 2011, valued at roughly $54.94 million.
The UN Trade Map revealed that Philippine imports of coffee (not roasted and not decaffeinated) declined to 7,609.61 MT in 2014, valued at about $15.4 million (P742.41 million at current exchange rate of P48.23: $1). Imports, however, doubled last year at 14,962MT, which the UN Trade portal valued at roughly $27.55 million (P1.329 billion).
The UN Trade portal pegged the exports of coffee from the Philippines to the world last year at 1.167MT, valued at $6,954 (P335,356.65).
Opportunities
DESPITE the daunting challenge to coffee growers, Judan remained optimistic for the agricultural sub-sector.
He said recent conferences by the PCB summits have revealed new avenues to rejuvenate interest in domestic production to meet domestic demand.
“The taste is very important, we have taste a lot of good coffee, very good cups, indeed, and they come from Mindanao,” he said during the end of the 2016 Coffee Summit here. “Always, we need government help; we need a lot of things from them—postharvest equipment, fertilizers, whether organic or inorganic warehousing, finance. Many things.”
The local coffee industry would only be required of its “interest and perseverance,” he added. “There’s not a lot of problem to face because we already have the coffee here that are so good.”
Judan may be referring to the DA survey showing the top producers of coffee in 2011 in the Soccsksargen (collectively the Cotabato provinces), Davao region and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The share of Soccsksargen (South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos City) in the national production was at 30.94 percent, while the Davao region and the Armm was at 23.13 percent and 12.31 percent, respectively.
Teaching farmers
ALEJANDO C. Mojica, vice president for research and development of the National Coffee Research Development and Extension Center in Cavite State University, has high hopes for farmers.
Mojica said the farmers may be mentored into going into the production of the fine Robusta, “and help them develop very good quality coffee, good processing and good genetic materials.”
“These are the weapons of farmers to compete in the gourmet [market],” he added. “Of course, we already have the good impression of our coffee [in the world market].”
Mojica said the local coffee growing and processing industry may tap the help of the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI). Mojica believes the Aliso Viejo, California-based nonprofit organization, can “help us turn our Robusta into good quality, from the Robusta we supply to Nestlé to the fine Robusta needed by the gourmet market.”
“This is the most important of all, and the CQI can help us with improving our beans to better quality and make us known worldwide,” he added.
The CQI maintains a quality grading system of coffee and bring them to the markets worldwide, with its partnership with institutions and governments in many countries.
To be concluded
Image credits: Nonie Reyes