Beautiful coffee future for the Phlippines

MANILA, Philippines — As Filipinos, we are lucky to be in one of the few coffee-producing countries in the world that grows and consumes coffee. A lot of us spent our childhood waking up to its aroma paired with a nice and warm pandesal. While most of us grew up with coffee, it was only in the past three years when Philippine coffee has started to enjoy a new age of renaissance. But before we move forward to the future of Philippine coffee, let’s take a look at our past.

The first coffees in the Philippines came from two sources. One reached the country during the spread of Islam. This coffee was being grown in the Yemen district of Arabia in the 15th century and it was cultivated throughout Persia, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey in the 16th century. The Muslims brought it to the West Indies and introduced it throughout Southeast Asia. Historians say that it is now called the old Typica — one of the original varietals of Arabica. On the other hand, the second source came from Mexico and it was first planted in Lipa, Batangas in 1700s. This coffee is known as kapeng barako.

Throughout the 18th century, Philippines was the fourth-largest exporter of coffee in the world. However, after 200 years, the country turned into a net importer due to urbanization and coffee rust (a coffee disease that devastates plantations). Currently, majority of the coffees planted across the country have lower quality and are mostly low-priced Robusta.

In the early 2000, the popularity of international coffee chains captured a new generation of Filipino coffee drinkers. This was also known as the “second wave coffee.” Though most of the coffee served in cafes were imported, Pinoys were starting to learn how to enjoy their coffee — brewed or as an espresso-based drink rather than the instant. This was also the time when I first entered the coffee industry. I was 20 years old, full of imagination, and big dreams. I wanted to lift the Philippine coffee and create a fully sustainable coffee economy where our country can grow, process, and consume its own coffee. I wanted the Philippines to be the first country in the world to have coffee security. But in order to achieve this, we have to make sure that the farmers are able to make a sustainable living and that the consumers would shift their preferences to specialty coffee.

The opportunity for change first came in 2009 when world commodity coffee prices was skyrocketing and shifting to local coffee became logical. At that time, the market price for local green Arabica was from P100 to P150 per kilogram. Collectively, our company decided to use 100-percent local coffee for our entire production in that year. We paid P220 per kilogram — the highest price paid for local coffee at the time. From then, it became the standard for many years. It was at this point when farmers and cooperatives started to plant coffee again. As coffee prices around the world fell to $2 (P102) per kilogram, making it below the production cost as of 2018, farmers around the world started shifting to other crops. Unaffected by world commodity prices, our Filipino farmers planted even more trees and now earns P280 to P320 per kilogram of green Arabica coffees. 

In the past three years, the consumer preferences of Filipinos have slowly started to shift to specialty coffee. Through the combined efforts of the farmers, rosters, five-star hotels, restaurants, convenience stores and baristas, ordinary coffee is transforming into something extraordinary. In the Philippines, the top 10 trends are: baristas classes for coffee enthusiasts, experiential coffee farm tours, coffee crawls (coffee shop hopping), barista milk made from the frozen distillation process, nitro cold brewed coffee (now available at 7/11 BGC), charcoal latte, coffee cocktails, roasting fresh coffee at home, curated coffee subscriptions, locally grown coffees, and having your very own Comandante Hand Grinder.

Alongside with these trends, consumers are now learning to appreciate coffees that have a natural intense sweetness with balanced acidity and bitterness along with the more than 850 aromatic flavor compounds that can be found in coffee. With an entire generation of tech-savvy consumers armed with nationalistic pride, Filipinos now demand for great tasting, socially responsible and fully traceable coffees. One of the best examples is the coffee from the old mining town of Itogon, Benguet that was recently transformed into a coffee-producing community. Ripe coffee cherries from this town are purchased at P120 per kilogram — the highest price in the world with the standard of P25 to P50 per kilogram — and green coffee beans are procured at P320 per kilogram. Itogon coffee is produced in nano lots in the backyard of farmers where each step of the post-harvesting process follows very strict protocols. This method allows farmers to yield coffees that feature intense sweetness with beautiful floral aromas, berry, stone fruit and tropical fruit flavors.

I believe that the dream of coffee security for the Philippines can become a reality in the next few years. With the projects we have initiated under the Foundation for Sustainable Coffee Excellence, the non-profit organization we built under Henry and Sons, we are taking every step to bring our country back to the global coffee spotlight through sustainable farming.

As a Filipino, I’m proud to say that our consumers are now more aware that we must all work on protecting our soil, on empowering our farmers, and ultimately, on protecting our rich coffee legacy for our future generations. Would it be great if one day specialty coffee is everywhere in the Philippines, where you can order it at your favorite restaurant and buy it at the grocery store or even at the corner store down the road? A world where consumers prefer ethically sourced and produced specialty coffee that empowers farmers to make a sustainable living. This is my vision — to create a fully sustainable coffee economy where every Filipino contributes to a beautiful coffee future.  — Michael Harris Conlin

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Michael Harris Conlin is the 2019 Philippine National Barista Champion and a 2019 World Barista Championship Semi-Finalist (Top 15). He is a social entrepreneur, coffee explorer and  innovator who is a mission to create a fully sustainable coffee economy where everyone contributes to a beautiful coffee future. He is currently the president and CEO of Henry and Sons Trading and Manufacturing Company, Inc.