BAGUIO — Addressing issues on productivity, expanding production areas, increasing profitability, and improving the quality of coffee produced in the country are the top agenda in the upcoming 3rd Philippine Coffee Conference on March 21-22 in this city.
Regional director Myrna Pablo of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) – Cordillera, during the weekly “Kapihan” on Thursday, said the insufficient volume of production is among the major issues of the coffee industry to be addressed at the national coffee conference.
Pablo, who is also the national cluster coordinator of the industry, said the Philippine Coffee Roadmap, which charts the direction of the industry for six years (2016-2022), spells out the low production as the real problem facing the coffee industry.
She said the country’s current sufficiency level for coffee is only 47 percent, and through the roadmap, by 2022, the Philippines is expected to reach a 160-percent sufficiency level.
Pablo pointed out that the country’s productivity level is only 0.33 metric tons per hectare.
The two-day conference will comprise the Presentation of the Industry Performance Report in the first year of implementation of the Philippine Coffee Roadmap.
The coffee conference, with the theme “Growing and Brewing Together”, would also discuss climate change and its effects on coffee production, value-adding on coffee, quality farming, and financing, aligned to the objectives of the roadmap.
