Cordi Fast Becoming RP’s Arabica Coffee Capital

Published on December 23, 2007

Presidential Assistant Thomas Killip said that the commercial farming of Arabica coffee in the region is viable due to its temperate climate and natural conditions. He believes that the region’s potential in the coffee industry may transform the Cordillera as the Arabica coffee capital of the country but that entails the active participation of all stakeholders particularly the farmers.

BY ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 46, December 23, 2007-January 5, 2008

BAGUIO CITY (246 kms. North of Manila) – The planting and growing of Arabica coffee, among the best coffee varieties worldwide as coffee enthusiasts say, may be adopted by Cordillera farmers as a means livelihood or supplemental source of income.

A former mayor of Sagada, Mountain Province, Killip claims that Arabica coffee has been organically grown for more than a century now since it was introduced in the country by the Spaniards in the 19th century.

“Coffee production and consumption have become integral components of the livelihood, rituals and culinary practices of the Cordillera indigenous peoples,” he said.

Considered to be the most aromatic coffee variety worldwide, Arabica coffee is grown in elevated areas of the region particularly in Benguet, Mt. Province and specific areas in Ifugao, Kalinga, Abra and Apayao.

The different Arabica coffee varieties produced are the typica, bourbon, San Ramon, Mondo Nuvo and Kenya. The typica variety is the most common in the Cordillera and has been grown there for the longest time.

Arabica is produced only in countries with temperate climate and high altitude like that in Columbia where this coffee became its top dollar-earner, Killip said.

Killip said Arabica coffee does not demand chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

“The improvement of the current traditional backyard Arabica production will enable the maximization of limited resources considering the region’s topography,” Killip added. “The coffee can be planted and can be productive in its third to seventh year.”

Ready market

Coffee production in the region is limited in volume not because it is only for backyard cultivation but due to inadequate government support to the industry, according to Killip.

The Regional Development Council of the Cordillera Administrative Region (RDC-CAR) supported the transformation of Arabica coffee crop production into a viable industry as contained in RDC ExCom Resolution No. CAR-85, series of 2007.

The RDC resolution stated that the Arabica coffee commands a premium status in the market if produced, processed and marketed qualitatively.

Market for the coffee is not a problem according to Killip. He said that current local production cannot even supply the growing demands of multiplying shops in Baguio City and other areas in the region.

Killip cited a study of the regional office of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) where the 120 kilos total consumptions per week of local shops cannot be supplied by local growers. Even in Baguio City, he claimed that coffee beans are imported from other countries.

“There is a potential market for Arabica coffee in the country,” he stressed.

Coffee councils

To help farmers adopt coffee production and sustain its cultivation and marketing, Killip initiated the formation of municipal, provincial and regional coffee councils, which synchronize the efforts of various sectors.

Last Dec.11, representatives of the various councils met in Wangal, La Trinidad, Benguet, to systematize their efforts in transforming the Cordillera as the Arabica capital of the country from its de facto status.

The councils may act as cooperative of coffee growers to ensure not only the production development but the marketability of their products like what the coffee growers did in Colombia, according to Killip.

Killip claimed that farmers could tap the services of the regional coffee council and coffee board for training, research, and technical innovations for the production, processing and marketing of Arabica coffee.

He points out that Arabica coffee can also be used as a component of watershed conservation.

“Rehabilitation of denuded watershed as a result of over-logging and swidden farming can be promoted through the adoption of coffee cultivation as agro-forestry crop,” he said. Northern Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat