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Coffee
town of Amadeo, Cavite
Roderick dela Cruz
Manila Times
January 31, 2004
Pablo
Angcaya, a 66-year-old farmer who in the past four decades
has been taking care of a three-hectare plot planted
to coffee, is excited to hear that prices of the world’s
second-most traded commodity continues to go up since
hitting bottom at P27 a kilo in the middle of 2002.
As of the third week of January this year, prices of
coffee reportedly reached P40 a kilo, providing relief
to thousands of coffee farmers in this idyllic Cavite
municipality, which prides itself as the “coffee
town of the Philippines.”
Data from the Department of Agriculture showed that
farmgate prices of coffee improved by 18.7 percent to
P36.47 a kilo in 2003 from P30.72 a kilo in 2002.
Because of the higher farmgate prices, total value of
coffee production hit P3.815 billion in 2003, higher
by 16.8 percent than the previous year’s P3.27
billion.
However, the total volume of locally produced coffee
beans still dropped by 1.6 percent to 104,610 metric
tons (MT) last year from 106,300 MT in 2002, as farmers
shifted to more lucrative crops. Others planted coffee
along with other crops such as banana, papaya, and peanut.
“Many farmers in Cavite abandoned coffee planting
in the past few years when prices dipped below the production
cost of P30 a kilo. In 2003, prices were better, but
still lower than in the 1980s, when we could say we
were earning P100 a kilo, based on today’s value
of the peso,” Angcaya said.
Because of improving coffee prices Mayor Albert “OJ”
G. Ambagan Jr., who at 26 is the second youngest town
mayor in the Philippines, decided to hold the Pahimis
Festival earlier this year. Pahimis, according to Councilor
Rene R. Tongson, is a local term for thanksgiving. The
festival will be held on February 14 and 15, instead
of April as was the case last year.
Ambagan said no less than Vietnamese Ambassador Dinh
Tich was invited to grace the occasion. It was Vietnam,
the world’s second largest coffee producer, that
the International Coffee Organization blamed for the
coffee crisis in 2002, when the socialist country dumped
around 800,000 MT of coffee in the world market, dragging
prices below the production cost. Prices of Robusta
coffee, for instance, reportedly plunged by 90 percent
to $370 per MT in 2002 from as high as $3,700 per MT
in 1997.
Tongson said the 4,790-hectare uphill town of 26,000
people, located 1,400 feet above sea level and 60 kilometers
south of Manila, had coffee plantations as early as
1880. The town, he added, used to devote at least 4,000
hectares to coffee farming. Today, the total coffee
area in the town is now down to only 2,300 hectares.
With the help of the National Coffee Development Board
(NCDB), a private sector-led organization seeking to
revive the country’s ailing coffee industry, Amadeo
hopes to rehabilitate 1,500 hectares of its coffee plantations.
Amadeo is actually the local government model of the
10-year national coffee road map for the rehabilitation
of 20,000 hectares of coffee plantations in 22 provinces
including Cavite and Sultan Kudarat, the country’s
largest coffee producers. The board’s overall target
is to expand coffee farming to 22,000 more hectares
and in the process create 88,000 new jobs.
The NCDB, which is co-chaired by Pacita U. Juan of Figaro
Coffee chains and Nicholas A. Matti of Negros Coffee
and Grains, launched the Adopt-a-Coffee Farm project
in Amadeo, in order to bring in capital for the rehabilitation
program.
Guillermo M. Luz, executive-director of the Makati Business
Club, which serves as the secretariat of the coffee
board, cited the need to promote Philippine coffee to
the world. He said this is the reason the board came
up with the Kape Isla concept, which seeks to build
loyalty to the brand, enhance consumption, boost production
and create new jobs.
At least 22 coffee merchants are now carrying the Kape
Isla seal, including coffee chains Starbucks, Seattle’s
Best Coffee and Figaro.
In 2003, the country consumed 55,000 MT of coffee beans
or 12 million cups of coffee daily but produced only
around 20,000 MT, forcing the government to allow the
importation of 35,000 MT worth P1.6 billion.
In the 1970s, the Philippines devoted 160,000 hectares
for coffee trees and was known as the world’s fourth
largest coffee producer, with Liberica or Kapeng Barako
as its pride. The country was able to export $140 million
worth of these beans in 1986.
Things changed when the United States withdrew from
the international quota system in 1989, causing prices
to stumble and farmers to shift to other crops. Total
size of coffee plantations shrank by half to only 80,000
hectares today. In 2003, the Philippines exported less
than a million dollars worth of coffee beans.
Aside from Robusta and Liberica, the country also produces
Arabica and Excelsa varieties.
Angcaya said he is hopeful that prices of coffee would
continue to rise in the coming months. “If we could
only have the same prices in the 1980s, we don’t
have to plant other crops anymore,” he said.
At present, the coffee board encourages intercropping
to supplement farmers’ income from coffee. Dr.
Alejandro Mojica, a noted coffee expert, admitted that
farmers need other sources of income on top of the average
P11,000 that they get from a hectare of coffee plantation
annually.
“In the 1980s, hospitals in Metro Manila were charging
higher service fees from residents of Amadeo because
we were perceived as rich coffee plantation owners,”
Angcaya recalled. “We wish we could bring back
the old days.”
In the meantime, Angcaya said the upward trend in global
coffee prices is a sign of the rebirth of the Philippine
coffee industry. “There is a reason for Thanksgiving.
This is why we will hold Pahimis,” he said.
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