But local support has to take root, ‘Phl coffee has potential to go global’

CEBU, Philippines -  Bo’s Coffee Club, the country’s largest Filipino-owned coffee shop chain, is initiating an advocacy that will help the Philippine coffee farming industry recover its position as the world’s top supplier of good coffee beans.

Bo’s Coffee Club president Steve Benitez said that while the country has the potential to etch a mark in the global coffee industry map, the patronage for Philippine-produced coffee has to start with the Filipinos.

“The role of Bo’s is to make our coffee popular in its own backyard. We would like to create more demand for Philippine coffee, and encourage farmers to plant more coffee especially in the high ground areas,” said Benitez.

With its current 58 outlets nationwide, Bo’s Coffee Club is using Philippine-produced coffee beans, except for de-caffeinated which is not grown in the Philippines.

He said while the Philippines is used to be the top exporter of high quality coffee beans in the world, “never in the recent history that Philippine-grown coffee has been featured. Other countries have successfully branded their coffee variety, but the Philippines has yet to show its global potential.”

The Philippines produced four variety of coffee beans, these are the commercially-viable coffee: Arabica, Liberica (Barako), Excelsa and Robusta. Climatic and soil conditions in the Philippines — from the lowland to mountain regions — make the country suitable for all four varieties.

As a start of its advocacy, the Cebu-grown Bo’s Coffee Club has launched the promotion of Philippine coffee branding, through its newly introduced “Coffee Origins” that features coffee produced from Sagada, Benguet, Bukidnon, Mt. Apo (Davao), and other high elevation areas in the Philippines.

According to Benitez, this is just the beginning of Bo’s Coffee Club’s strong advocacy to put Philippine coffee in the global stage, and encourage more Filipinos to engage in coffee farming.

Already, Benitez’s company has inked a partnership deal with Philippine Coffee Board to drum up awareness of the quality of  Philippine coffee.

At present, the Philippine demand for coffee is estimated at 72 thousand metric tons, but the country can only produce about 30 thousand to 35 thousand metric tons a year.

Bo’s Coffee Club has also implemented different programs in honoring Filipino Coffee and culture. Starting this Christmas season, the company has partnered with social and cultural enterprise Anthill Fabric Gallery, to provide coffee lovers with Christmas offering that carries Filipino pride.

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture (DA) earlier announced the allocation of P192 million budget for coffee and the implementation of Cacao Agribusiness Zones Development (CAZD).

The Philippines apparently has to embrace the mocha trend as the craze on coffee as a social drink has turned to more mixtures of coffee with different flavors.  This is particularly coffee mixed with chocolate as a cocoa product or known as mocha, said Teodor S. Solsoloy, DA—Bureau of Agriculture Research (BAR) assistant director.

“The vision of Sec. (Proceso) Alcala is for us to come up with the best possible strategies to make the country’s coffee and cacao industries competitive so that these commodities can contribute to food security,” said Solsoloy.

The Philippines imports some 100,000 metric tons (MT) of coffee beans worth P10 billion annually mainly from Vietnam.

The Philippines is among the few countries in the world that can grow coffee and cacao with its geographical position around the equator. /JOB (FREEMAN)