DA unveils roadmap to perk up local coffee sector

The Department of Agriculture (DA) marked International Coffee Day on Oct. 1 by unveiling a new coffee industry roadmap that will be implemented from this year up to 2025.

Agriculture Undersecretary Evelyn Laviña said in a briefing that the new roadmap seeks to shore up local coffee production that has been declining over the past five years despite Filipinos’ love for the commodity.

She added that the industry’s volume of production has been decreasing by an average of 12 percent annually for the last five years. Similarly, the area planted to coffee also declined to 113,000 hectares (ha) last year from 115,000 ha in 2016.

The DA is set to allocate P147 million to implement the coffee industry roadmap. Laviña added that the DA was positive that funding for the development of the high-value crop would further increase.

The roadmap focuses on improving the quality and grade of Philippine coffee not just for exports but for domestic use, and the extension of support services to farmers to ensure that best practices are observed from the farms to the packaging of coffee.

There are four varieties of coffee cultivated in the Philippines—Arabica, Robusta, Liberica and Excelsa. More than 80 percent of the country’s coffee production comes from Mindanao while Luzon produces 9.2 percent and the Visayas, 7.2 percent. Laviña said that 80 percent of the country’s coffee requirement was imported.