BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – – The Philippine Coffee industry has a strong potential to be a key player in bringing in sustainable and inclusive growth to the country and the Filipino people given the strong and continuously increasing market demand locally and abroad.
This was the message conveyed by Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Agriculture officials during the opening program and press conference for the 2nd Philippine Coffee Congress at Hotel Supreme here on Wednesday (Nov. 23).
Dave Santos, chief of the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries, in presenting the Philippine Coffee Roadmap (2017 – 2022) outlined that coffee consumption in the country and at the global setting continues to increase.
From the around 150.38 million (60kg bags) coffee consumption worldwide in 2014, it increased to round 120.4 million in 2015. In the Philippines, there was an 8.8 percent increase in coffee consumption during the same period.
As the demand increases, coffee production in the country is on the down trend caused by various reasons and challenges, which the new Philippine Coffee road map hopes to address, Santos reported.
DA Cordillera Regional Director Lorenzo Caranguian disclosed that through the presentation of the Roadmap and the featured activities in the conference, they hope that all coffee industry stakeholders can become aware of the lessons and best practices on coffee production as well as on how or what convergence of effort needed to address the challenges in increasing productivity to meet the emerging industry demand.
He also stressed the need to invest more on renovation, expansion, rehabilitation, technology, seeds, standard and certification, government support, capacity building and empowerment of farmers, research and development, improving marketing strategies and infrastructure support.
Meantime, DTI Undersecretary for Regional Operations Zenaida Maglaya, in her keynote address, outlined the need for strengthening the convergence of all the stakeholders in the coffee industry of the country primarily on increasing productivity to meet the country’s demand then towards global competitiveness.
Maglaya assured that there is profit in the industry as there is already a high and increasing demand locally and at the global market, making coffee a potential driver of sustainable and inclusive economic growth for the country and the Filipino people.
Given the new Phl Coffee Road Map, Maglaya encouraged stakeholders in every part of the country to draft and localize their action plan to what is best or applicable in increasing productivity in their respective localities.
The main point here is to localize your action plan, look at the rights seeds that can be planted on the right place, as well as the right price appropriate for the corresponding market. DTI has the programs and services that can help you, Maglaya urged.
