The country’s coffee imports in marketing year (MY) 2017-2018 could go down to 390,000 metric tons (MT) due to lower domestic demand, according to the latest report of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
In its report, titled “Coffee: World Markets and Trade”, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) said the volume is slightly lower than the 396,000 MT the country would purchase until the end of the current marketing year in July.
The FAS noted that soluble coffee imports in MY 2017-2018 would reach 360,000 MT, accounting for nearly 93 percent of the country’s expected purchases from abroad. The volume, however, is unchanged from the estimated coffee imports of the Philippines in MY 2016-2017.
Filipinos would consume less coffee in the next marketing year, according to the FAS. The USDA said Philippine coffee consumption would decline by 3.13 percent to 417,000 MT in MY 2017-2018, from the estimated 430,500 MT in MY 2016-2017.
Philippine coffee production in MY 2017-2018 is also expected to decline by 5.26 percent to 27,000 MT, from 28,500 MT in MY 2016-2017, according to the FAS.
By the end of the next marketing year in 2018, the FAS pegged the ending coffee stock of the Philippines also at 24,000 MT, the
projected ending stock in the current marketing year.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed the country’s coffee production in 2015 reached 36,171 MT, translating into an SSR of 33.04 percent.
The coffee self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) in 2015 was significantly lower than the 71.91 percent registered in 2014 and is the lowest since the 2012 SSR, pegged at 45.21 percent.
The PSA defines self-sufficiency ratio as the extent to which a country’s local production of commodities is adequate enough to meet the demand of the whole population.
The government is targeting to increase the output of green coffee berries to at least 214,626 MT by 2022 to end the country’s reliance on imports and allow farmers to export coffee.
Under the Philippine Coffee Industry Road Map (PCIR) 2017-2022, a copy of which was obtained by the BusinessMirror, the target production would translate into a SSR of 160.16 percent. This means, that in five years, the Philippines would have surplus coffee.