Canadian firm eyes Camp John Hay as major coffee producer

MANILA, Philippines - Canadian firm Rocky Mountain Arabica Coffee Co. (RMACC) has entered into an agreement with the John Hay Management Corp. (JHMC) and the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) to turn the Camp John Hay Special Economic Zone (CJHSEZ) in Baguio City into a major coffee producer.

Under the agreement, RMACC will plant at least 100,000 trees of the high-quality Arabica coffee covering an area of about 100 hectares within Camp John Hay. This is in addition to 60 hectares leased earlier by RMACC from the Camp John Hay Development Corp. (CJHDevCo), a private company developing John Hay.

RMACC expects to harvest some 300,000 kilograms of premium coffee yearly from its John Hay plantation. The premium coffee will be marketed as “John Hay Coffee.”

BCDA president Arnel Casanova hailed RMACC’s entry into Camp John Hay as this project will not only help enhance the facility’s lush foliage, but will also generate a decent source of livelihood for the village folk.

“This agreement will augur well for the people of Baguio as this will generate employment and at the same time put Baguio City in the map for producing high quality coffee,” Casanova pointed out.

For her part, JHMC president Jamie Eloise Manzano-Agbayani said RMACC’s agro-forestry venture will complement and improve the environment and ecosystem of the pine forest within the reservation.

RMACC has existing plantations in Tuba, Benguet covering 16.5 hectares with 21,000 trees; Kiamba, Sarangani Province, 100 hectares; Kitanlad, Libona, Bukidnon, 100 hectares; and Marayon, Talakag, Bukidnon, 40 hectares.

JHMC is one of BCDA’s subsidiaries tasked to oversee the transformation of the former US military camp into a special economic zone with minimum intervention to the area’s ecosystem.

BCDA is hopeful that this may yet turn out to be a major producer of world-class coffee even as the former military facility strengthens further its ecosystem preservation program with the forging of an agro-forestry management agreement with the Canadian company.