MANILA: The Philippines shells out P7 billion a year to import coffee and plug the shortfall in domestic production, according to an official of the Cavite State University (CSU).
Dr. Alejandro C. Mojica, CSU vice president for research and development, said local governments should provide more support to coffee farmers so they can meet the increasing requirement of Filipinos for coffee. “We need a boost. We need to improve farm-production practice,” Mojica told participants of a three-day national coffee summit, which kicked off here on Wednesday.
He noted that the Philippines imports an average of 70,000 metric tons (MT) of coffee beans at P100 per kilogram. This is because local coffee production remains unable to meet the national consumption of 100,000 MT due to low production and uncompetitive pricing for local coffee products.
The average production was supposed to be at 1.2 MT per hectare, but the 15,000 Filipino coffee farmers could only produce 300 kg per hectare. Only Cavite farmers have been able to yield as much as 700 kg, but he said this is not enough.
With output unable to satisfy local demand, coffee production gets low priority when it comes to the provision of government assistance, said Mojica, who also works for the National Coffee Research Development and Extension Center.
“It’s here that local governments may find multiple benefits for them in training more farm technicians for coffee,” he said. He added that coffee farmers would need a lot of technical help from local governments as the Department of Agriculture is already “overstretched.”
