Coffee production in the Philippines

Coffee is an important agricultural product in the Philippines, and is one of the Philippines' most important export products[1] aside from being in high demand in the country's local consumer market.^[2]

The Philippines is one of the few countries that produce the four main viable coffee varieties;

As of 2014, the Philippines produces 25,000 metric tons of coffee and is ranked 110th in terms of output. However local demand for coffee is high with 100,000 metric tons of coffee consumed in the country per year.[2]

Coffee was said to have been introduced in the Philippines around 1696 when the Dutch introduced coffee in the islands. It was once a major industry in the Philippines, which by the 1800s was the fourth largest coffee producing nation.^[5]

However, Islamic culture has been pervaded by coffee drinkers from the 1500s. And with the close ties of the Philippines to the Islamic World since the 12th century, it would not be impossible to speculate that coffee has been in the Philippines before the Dutch "introduced" it.^[6]

History

Early years

Arabica coffee variety was introduced in West Java in 1690. Muslim pilgrims have already smuggled Yemeni seed to west India, the real source of Dutch seedlings, and probably introduced it to Sumatra. West Sumatran coffee was sold to British interlopers and American missionaries spread coffee further, probably to the Philippines in the eighteenth century. Southeast Asian consumption of coffee grew and was closely associated culturally with Islam. ^[7]

Coffee was introduced in the Philippines as early as 1730, when a

During the 1950s, the Philippine government, with assistance from Americans, introduced a variety of coffee to the country which is more resistant. Instant coffee began to be produced in commercial quantities which resulted to the increase of demand for coffee. Many farmers began shifting back to growing coffee in the 1960s. Importation of coffee were momentarily stopped due to a surplus in the world market due to sudden proliferation of coffee farms. In 1980, the Philippines became a member of the International Coffee Organization (ICO).^[8]

21st century

Demand for coffee experienced growth. In 2002, the yearly coffee consumption of the Philippines was 75,000 metric tons. This figure grew to 170,000 metric tons annually by 2018. As of the same year, the Philippines began to import coffee due to low coffee production at only 35,000 metric tons annually. It imports about 75,000-100,000 metric tons of dried coffee beans amounting ₱7 billion−10 billion from Vietnam and Indonesia according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).^[10]

By 2016, according to PhilMech, an agency under DA, Mindanao is the leader of local production of dried coffee beans. Sultan Kudarat is the province that produces the most coffee in the island. Coffee production in traditional cultivation areas such as the Cordillera and Calabarzon experienced a decline due to strong typhoons which battered the region in the same year.^[10]

While 2020 brought further challenges – including the COVID-19 pandemic and the Taal Volcano eruption – it could also mark the beginning of a new era for Philippine specialty coffee. For the first time in history, a locally produced coffee won the 2020 Philippine National Barista Championship (PNBC).^[11]

The Duterte administration signed a “Philippine Coffee Industry Roadmap 2017-2022” with the purpose of boosting the country's annual domestic coffee output from 37,000 metric tons (MT) a year to 214,626 MT by 2022. According to the roadmap, this will bring the country's coffee self-sufficiency level to 161% from the current 41.6%.^[12]

Climate change

Agriculture in the Philippines is highly susceptible to the

• List of countries by coffee production

References

• Media related to Coffee industry in the Philippines at Wikimedia Commons