Private, public sector work together to improve coffee production, quality
In 2019, the Philippines produced 60,043.88 MT, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). According to the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Philippines’ coffee output is just 32.40 percent self-sufficient. 67 percent of the country’s coffee is imported.
The Philippine government plans to boost coffee output to 214,626 metric tonnes by 2022, according to the Philippine Coffee Industry Roadmap 2017-2022. However, recent trends indicate that coffee output in the Philippines will stay below the roadmap’s objective.
The target production for 2019 was 68,135 MT. According to PSA figures, however, only 60,043.88 MT were generated in the country.
The sector is expected to produce about 95,389 MT by 2020. Only 60,636.15 MT was produced, according to preliminary statistics from the PSA’s Major Non-Food and Industrial Crops Quarterly Bulletin. The Davao Region generated 10,826.26 MT of this total.
Farmers in the Davao Region, according to Emmanuel Quisol, ACDI/VOCA Business Development Coordinator, are unable to satisfy market volume needs since there are many coffee purchasers looking for a restricted supply.
“When demand for Philippine speciality coffee rises on the local market, for example, our growers are unable to satisfy the demands of our customers. Some Davao farmers, for example, must assign available volume for each customer in order to meet their needs and guarantee that everyone is serviced.”
Joji Pantoja, the founder and CEO of Coffee For Peace (CFP), previously stated that, unlike other coffee-producing countries, the Philippines lacks huge contiguous areas that would allow for extensive coffee cultivation.
Some farmers, according to John Paul Matuguinas, regional focal person for the High Value Crop Development Program (HVCDP) at the Department of Agriculture-Davao (DA-Davao), would like to plant other crops instead of coffee since it grows quicker or allows them to earn more quickly.
