Organic coffee supply in RP remains scarce

CEBU, Philippines - Although there is a fast growing market seeking for "health-friendly" products, demand for organic gourmet coffee products may still take a while to grow in the Philippine marketplace.

Coffee shop chain Bo's Coffee president Steve Benitez said that while it is tempting to start the trend of offering organic coffee products in his chain just to create the demand, there are only few farmers in the country that are producing organic coffee beans.

"We have plans of offering organic coffee. We have difficulty in sourcing out organic coffee beans. Not so many farmers are doing it. There's a small farm in Cavite that is doing organic farming for coffee, but its supply cannot sustain our volume requirements," Benitez said.

According to Benitez, now that the market is always looking for health-friendly products, offering organic coffee can easily gain market patronage, but the problem is not so many farmers are engaging in organic farming.

While there is a lot of organic coffee bean available abroad, importing coffee bean could be very expensive, which in turn will translate to a very expensive coffee not feasible for a "starting" market like the Philippines.

He said the Philippine market is still not ready for a more expensive cup-of-coffee price, regardless of its health-benefit. However, if the coffee beans can only be sourced locally, organic coffee offering may be priced affordably.

On the other hand, Benitez said his chain of 45 outlets across the country, making Bo's the largest Filipino-owned coffee chain brand, is now adopting other ways to encourage the "green-lifestyle" campaign, by doing away of plastic cups, except for the cold-beverage products.

"We are slowly doing our own to help educate people on helping the environment," Benitez said adding that introducing products made from organic-produced coffee beans, may not be immediate, but it is seen to be the next hit among coffee drinkers.

Meanwhile, Benitez said that the coffee business in the Philippines has continued to grow, despite the proliferation of coffee shops by local and foreign capitalists.

In fact, Bo's Coffee will be adding 10 more outlets this year, focusing its expansion in the Luzon area.

"The market is big. Last year, even at the height of the global recession, we opened six coffee shops," he said.

Out of the 45 Bo's Coffee outlets located all over the country, 22 outlets are managed by franchisees.

From its inception in 1996, Bo's Coffee Club operated by the the Benitez SD Ventures Holdings, now owns several subsidiaries aside from the Coffee Centrale Inc.-The Bean Company, these are the Triangle Fort Distribution Inc.- the warehouse and delivery provider for all Bo's Coffee outlets nationwide; Triangle Food Central Corporation-the commissary unit for Bo's servicing its pastries and other food product requirements; Coffee System Franchise Corporation, and Omni Triangle Resources Corporation.