Something good is brewing at Figaro’s

AMADEO, Cavite — Coffee farmers here are perked up about their barako coffee. For the first time in nearly 20 years, they will have a chance to go back to the export market, and in a "wild, organic way."

It will be a feat alright, thanks to the persistence of local coffee chain giant Figaro Coffee Co., the country’s first 100-percent Filipino-owned coffee specialty store that began the campaign to plant and grow organic barako coffee beans.

"We’re giving the barako another shot in the export market, and this time, our aim is to produce organic coffee not just for the local market but also for the growing global market for organically-grown coffee beans," says Pacita U. Juan in between planting coffee seedlings in this 1.7-hectare pilot farm aptly named Barako Farm that was lent by Amadeo Mayor Albert Ambagan Jr.

Every year, Juan, president and CEO of Figaro, leads a coffee farm tour organized by the Figaro Foundation.

The activity aims to create a better appreciation of coffee growing and harvesting — especially the barako variety - acknowledged as one of the best in the world.

The production of barako, the Philippine Liberica bean known for its particularly strong taste, powerful body and a distinctly pungent odor, is picking up pace, after being indanger of extinction in the late 1980s when farmers here abandoned their coffee farms as world market prices plunged.

Barako got its name from the Tagalog word for wild boar because these creatures, also now endangered, are fond of feasting on the coffee plants’ leaves and berries. Currently, barako exports average $150,000 yearly and most of it goes to Saudi Arabia.

The improving production should eventually bring the country back on the global coffee map. Today though, the Philippines, once one of the world’s largest coffee exporters, continues to be a net importer of coffee, buying about 30,000 metric tons (MT) annually which is half the country’s coffee requirements. The foundation also hopes to revive an estimated 175,000 hectares of coffee lands, of which only 80,000 hectares remain productive, mostly in the highlands of Batangas, Cavite, Bukidnon, Benguet, Kalinga-Apayao, Davao and Claveria.

Fortunately, Figaro’s showpiece effort, the "Save the barako" program which started in 2000 is starting to gain ground. In close coordination with the municipal government of Amadeo, 180 hectares of idle land have been converted into productive coffee farms under the Adopt-a-farm program. Of the 300 hectares of identified idle coffee farms in Amadeo alone, an average of 60 hectares are being converted yearly and only about 120 hectares are expecting adoption by coffee enthusiasts who are taking their passion into a deeper level by leasing these lands for a minimum of 10 years and hiring coffee farm hands to rejuvenate the farms. At least 140,000 coffee trees have been planted in Amadeo.

Juan says that to convince farmers to take on organic coffee planting, the foundation last year, started its "Direct Trade" program with coffee farmers in Pinukpuk, Mananig, Kalinga, Kiangan and Lagawe in Ifugao.

"We wanted to show farmers that we were serious about growing organic Arabica in these uplands in the north. We gave them a premium over current market prices for as long as they follow the training we gave them to produce quality coffee. We wanted to impress upon them that even if they produce smaller volumes, they could still command better prices because there is a demand for the commodity," stresses Juan.

While local Arabica and Robusta fetch an average of P60 to P70 per kilo, barako is now riding high at P80 to P120 a kilo.

Niche for organic coffee

Juan says Figaro’s pitch for growing organic coffee, Barako and Arabica in particular, was inspired by a previous trip to East Africa in 2004 where she visited several organic coffee farms.

"I found so many similarities in the makeup of their coffee farms and that of the Philippines’ coffee farms. Most of East African countries like Uganda are poor like us. Their farms are mostly smallholdings, no big consolidated corporate farms. I said that if they can do it, we should be able to achieve the same kind of success. The key is in finding a niche market like they did. If we do everything right, we can compete even if our production is small."

A trip to Mexico’s uplands in 2005 also encouraged Juan to pursue organic coffee farming. "Mexico organic farmer, Finca Irlanda, acquired the world’s first certified organic farm and these are mostly poor farmers. It convinced me all the more that it’s not impossible to grow organic coffee in the Philippines."

East Africa and Mexico now dominate the growing world market for organic coffee, supplying the globe’s biggest coffee drinkers such as the European Union, United States, the Scandinavian countries and Japan.

In the next three to five years, Figaro’s medium-term plans include exporting organic barako coffee grown in Amadeo and in selected areas in Batangas. The company also hopes to export organic Arabica coffee that will be sourced in Benguet and in Kalinga, Ifugao.

Figaro is being assisted in this effort by the German Development Service which helped establish an organic coffee quality control system with coffee farmers‚ cooperatives in provinces like the Cordilleras.

At the same time, Figaro has commissioned international organic certifying body, Naturland Verband of Germany to monitor its pilot organic coffee farms and to ensure farmers implement good agricultural practices before certifying the barako and Arabica coffee produce as organic. Naturland is accredited by the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Organic Program and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements.

"What we intend to accomplish is to ship our organic coffee as a brand from the Philippines. We want to package it as a major coffee brand in Asia."

Juan says persuading farmers to shift to growing organic barako coffee is easy.

"First of all, there are no major inputs required, no costly investments that they can ill-afford, no messy bank loans. The only major investment required is for them to follow the recommended good agricultural practices to have their farms certified as organic. They don’t have to invest in anything extra and yet they get premium prices for their coffee. That’s a good incentive for them."

The process of going organic, she adds, has in fact been accelerated.

"Since most of these coffee farms have been idle for so long, they have become organic by default, the soil is now organic after not getting any dose of chemical-based fertilizers."

Aside from being environment-friendly, farmers can intercrop coffee with high-value crops such as coconuts, bananas and vegetables. These organically-grown crops, like coffee command better prices.

To jumpstart the program, the foundation has established a vermi-compost farm and distributed "starter worm kits" so that farmers can produce their own organic fertilizer.

Juan beams that all too soon, the invigorating aroma of ripe red Barako cherries wafting through these coffee lands will go to coffee roasters anywhere in the EU and in the US, and in Figaro‚s growing coffee chains overseas. And with coffee futures traders pointing to more price jolts, local coffee farmers in Amadeo and elsewhere in the country, will be picking up their seeds and planting more of these for the export market.

"We’re brewing something really good here," says Juan.