Agriculture Business Week

Coffee farmer Quirica Cadava of Butuan province wakes up every dawn with so much enthusiasm. She has been counting the days until she could finally harvest the ripe coffee cherries with love and care. She smiles in content as she sees how her passion and dedication have resulted in a good harvest this year.

For Quirica Cadava of Tungao, San Mateo, Butuan City, the early morning sight of coffee cherries—all red, ripe and glistening as they hang from the dew-covered coffee trees, all awaiting harvest as the first pick of the season—is a source of wonder, hope and inspiration.

The coffee cherries represent not simply the fruits of her labor and care but also the chance for a better future for her family and relatives.

(more…)

Posted on January 8th, 2011 under Coffee, Farming. Tags: Butuan, Coffee, Farmer. Comments: 3

Filipino farmers stand to receive better and improved harvests as well as an improved livelihood—thanks to the introduction of seven high-yielding Robusta coffee selections. These seven coffee selections — tested at the Nestlé Experimental and Demonstration Farm in Tagum City, Davao and other locations in the country —produce good cup quality coffee, are resistant to pests and diseases, and well-adapted to local coffee-growing conditions.

The multi-location field trials of these seven Robusta selections were done from 1999 to 2006 at the NEDF and other locations as part of efforts by Nestlé to provide quality coffee seedlings and cuttings to Filipino farmers.

For decades, Nestlé has been in partnership with Filipino coffee farmers and helping them find ways—from providing quality coffee seedlings, to new technologies, to modern farming practices—of improving the quality and quantity of their coffee harvests. This has resulted in a better livelihood for some 30,000 Filipino coffee farmers and their families.

(more…)

Posted on May 1st, 2010 under Coffee. Tags: Coffee, Nestle, Robusta. Comments: 3

Bohol recently became the first coffee producing area in the country to receive the fruits of the partnership between the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Nestle Philippines, Inc. (NPI), makers of the country’s most popular coffee brand, Nescafe.

“Because of our partnership with Nestle, there is hope in coffee,” said Agriculture Sec. Arthur C. Yap during the DA and NPI’s visit to Bohol.

The DA and the country’s leading nutrition, health, and wellness company had earlier committed to helping accelerate the growth of the local coffee farming industry through a memorandum of agreement. Here, both organizations have sworn to undertake “a joint technical and commercial cooperation and scientific exchange program that encompasses projects for the development of the coffee industry.”

(more…)

Posted on April 11th, 2010 under Coffee. Tags: Bohol, Coffee, Nestle. Comments: 8

One early cool June morning in Barangay Kahayagan, Tagbina, Surigao del Sur, around 30 coffee farmers and their families are already up with gusto. Red and yellow coffee cherries hung from coffee trees in clusters, already ripe for the picking. It’s coffee harvest time in the Caraga region of northeastern Mindanao—farmer Julio Budlayan and his nephews are in the field to do the first pick of the season.

“We waited all year for this day,” says Budlayan while tightening the nylon cord that held the harvest basket around his waist. “Everyone is excited, everyone is happy.” Nevertheless, Budlayan is quick to remind his nephews to handpick only the ripe cherries: “It’s first about quality, not quantity.”

Budlayan knows the strict standards that Nestlé follows when it comes to the kind of coffee beans it uses for Nescafe. He and his parents have been selling their coffee to Nestlé in the last three decades. “There are no words to describe my happiness when I was informed that my harvest was chosen for the First Pick coffee. I knew right then that my harvest passed a standard of excellence” says Budlayan in his native Cebuano.

(more…)

Posted on April 7th, 2010 under Coffee. Tags: Coffee, Lipa, Nescafe, Surigao. Comments: None

Students who are interested to pursue graduate and undergraduate studies in a discipline related to Arabica coffee production and processing at the Benguet State University (BSU) can benefit from the agreements signed by the Benguet State University with the Canadian company Rocky Mountain Arabica Coffee Company, Inc. (RMACC).

That’s because the BSU has agreed to allow RMACC to install Rocky Mountain Café (RMC) franchise(s) at the BSU campus, and the first one of which is now operational at the BSU Marketing Center.

The agreement, which was signed last January by Dr. Rogelio Colting, BSU president, and Rodrigo A. Vagilidad Sr., RMACC president, aims to generate profits that will be used to finance scholarships for students who are interested to pursue studies related to Arabica coffee production or processing at BSU. Another goal is to create job opportunities for BSU students.

(more…)

Posted on April 6th, 2010 under Coffee. Tags: Arabica, Benguet, Coffee, Students. Comments: 2

Unlike other coffee farmers Jolan Lamoste painstakingly sorts sacks of first pick green coffee beans (GCB) for defects before selling them to Nestlé, the makers of Nescafe. Lamoste has a good reputation to protect – his father was a longtime supplier of Nestlé. He not only inherited his parents’ livelihood but also their sense of pride in delivering the best produce their lands can yield.

Lamoste, who hails from Laac, Compostela Valley, inherited the coffee growing business from his parents, Maximo and Gina. His parents, in fact, were given the honor of becoming ceremonial coffee farmer ambassadors in 2006, when the Nestlé Satellite Buying Station in Davao City celebrated its 20th anniversary.

After 20 years of coffee farming and trading, Lamoste knows there is no shortcut to good, quality coffee. He always resists the temptation to quickly sell his dried and dehulled first harvest coffee to Nestlé Satellite Buying Station in San Francisco, Agusan del Sur.

(more…)

Posted on February 2nd, 2010 under Coffee. Tags: Coffee, Nestle. Comments: None

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap sees a bright future for coffee farming in the Philippines—despite the setbacks of the past two decades–and has set his sights on reviving the coffee industry.

Yap, who is actively working with farmers and private organizations to improve the quality and quantity of yields in all sectors of agriculture, believes that reviving the coffee industry will bring many advantages to the entire country.

From 1989 to 2002, the Philippine coffee industry suffered a huge drop in production. From a global coffee exporter during the ’70s and ’80s, producing more than 70,000 tons of coffee (about half of that amount for export), the Philippines has become an importer of coffee. Local production hit rock-bottom in 1989-2002, when only 23,000 tons were being produced annually.

(more…)

Posted on November 4th, 2009 under Coffee. Tags: Coffee. Comments: None

A two-year old coffee tree nursery is set to share Nescafe technology to farmers in Sultan Kudarat, the leading coffee producing province in the country.

D and R Farms, owned by Dr. Dante Eugenio and managed by Edgar Eugenio, is scheduled to harvest some 200,000 rooted cuttings of Robusta coffee from which Nescafe, the country’s leading instant coffee brand is made. Edgar, a retired pharmaceutical executive is a graduate of coffee specialist course at the Nestle Experimental and Demonstration Farm (NEDF) in Tagum, Davao del Norte.

“We are excited about the renewed interest of farmers in coffee,” Says Edgar. “In Kalamansig alone, our starting order last year was for 50,000 seedlings.”

(more…)

Posted on August 15th, 2009 under Coffee, Farming. Tags: Coffee, Nescafe, Seed, Seedlings, Sultan Kudarat. Comments: 11

What is one of the world’s most popular drinks? Coffee. In the Philippines, 8 out of 10 adults drink an average of 2.5 cups of coffee every day.

The popular drink comes from an evergreen tree, which was first discovered in Ethiopia, where its red, cherry-like berries (generally containing 2 seeds per berry) were used for wine and food before A.D. 1000. Its beans are first ground and roasted and made into a drink during the 15th century in the Arabian Peninsula. Coffee later spread throughout Europe since the 17th century.

“In the Philippines, coffee has a history as rich as its flavor,” says the National Coffee Development Board (NCDB), whose main objective is to develop and promote the Philippine coffee industry through technical assistance and credit programs for coffee farms and through marketing and promotions of coffee for domestic and export markets.

(more…)

Posted on August 13th, 2009 under Coffee. Tags: Caffeine, Coffee, Excelsa, Liberica, Robusta. Comments: None

An ex-salesman lets us in on the advantages and disadvantages of sharing entrepreneurial endeavors with your kin.

For more than 19 years now, Eugene O. Cebuala, general manager of Kiks Roasted Corn Coffee, has been an avid coffee drinker. “It’s as if my day’s incomplete without at least a cup of coffee. While I often get hyper acidic because of it, and the doctor has advised me to stay away from my favorite brew, I still can’t help myself,” he said.

And so, after a visit last year in Butuan where he saw his first encounter with a different kind of coffee-not from beans, but from corn-he also caught sight of promising agribusiness. After talking to the processor of the product and ironing out the rest of the details, Kiks was born.

(more…)

Posted on August 6th, 2009 under Coffee, Entrepreneurs. Tags: Business, Coffee, Entrepreneurs. Comments: 2

Coffee produced from the Philippines’ northern highlands will soon be sold around the world by a Canadian company, local officials said.

An agreement between Canada’s Rocky Mountain Café and the Kibungan, Benguet local government are set to be signed next week, helping the company increase its production by purchasing coffee grown by resident farmers.

Kibungan, also known for growing varieties of red and white rice, produces four tons of coffee per year, town mayor Benito Siadto said.

Produce is harvested from 2,700 coffee trees in a 20-hectare area.

(more…)

Posted on July 28th, 2009 under Coffee. Tags: Arabica, Canada, Coffee. Comments: 7

After more than ten years of working as a chemist abroad, Gina Mangalindan returned to her roots – coffee farming. Starting with her three-hectare mountainous land in Brgy. Tala, Orani, Bataan. Mangalindan hopes to revive coffee production in her province one farm at a time.

“Orani’s landscape is very conducive to planting coffee,” says Mangalindan who has been supplying Nescafe with green coffee beans (GCB) for a decade now and has likewise adopted practices from many of the company’s coffee farming programs.

She adds that like the Cordilleras, her barangay gets a steady supply of mountain spring water courtesy of micro waterfalls in the area.

“If Cavite has Taal Lake that brings the cool breeze, we have the South China Sea. On top of that, we are in the buffer zone of Bataan National Park so we are assured of protection for whatever we plant here,” Mangalindan stresses.

(more…)

Posted on July 27th, 2009 under Coffee. Tags: Bataan, Coffee, Nestle, Orani. Comments: None

As part of its efforts to support the coffee farmers, the rural communities and the local coffee industry, Nescafe, Nestle’s heritage coffee brand, extends its support to Bukidnon farmers by gifting them with superior coffee planting materials and free training and assistance on coffee growing.

The handover was made during the closing ceremony of the province’s annual Kaamulan Festival led by no less than Sen. Loren Legarda, Gov. Jose Ma Zubiri Jr. and Nestle Philippines’ senior vice president for corporate affairs Edith de Leon. Also present were the leaders from the seven tribes of Bukidnon, namely the Higaonon, the Manobo, the Matigsalug, Talaandig, the Tigwahonon and the Umayamnon.

The Kaamulan Festival, famous for being the country’s only tribal harvest festival, attracts more than 200,000 people from various parts of Mindanao.

Included in the package presented are coffee pulpers, coffee seeds and polybags for seedling production.

(more…)

Posted on July 10th, 2009 under Coffee. Tags: Coffee, Nescafe. Comments: 4

Raising children and sending then to school is three times harder for a single mom like Sarah Concepcion Dabucun. Facing the pangs and hardships of parenthood alone, she needs to exert more effort to make a living and invest in her kids future.

After finishing Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degree at the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) in Batac, Ilocos Norte in 1995, Sarah hoped to work as an employee. However, she went back to Ilocos Norte and became a rice farmer instead. After several years of being a rice farmer, however, her family’s life did not improve much.

As the prices of commodities continuously rose, Sarah decided to go into peanut butter production to add value to her harvest. However, this business venture did not prosper due to stiff competition among the commercial brands. But Sarah did not lose hope. Armed with determination and love for her children, she was willing to try another business.

(more…)

Posted on May 11th, 2009 under Coffee, Rice. Tags: Coffee, Entrepreneurs, Rice. Comments: 2