‘Kape Isla’ to lift local coffee industry to new heights

The local coffee industry and government are now out to reclaim the sector’s lost glory with the marketing of a brand ‘Kape Isla ’ that will symbolize Philippine coffee.

At the sidelines of yesterday’s Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility, Makati Business Club (MBC) executive director Guillermo Luz revealed that a brand development campaign is being launched to be participated in by retailers, roasters, and café chains that will promote local coffee bean varieties not only here but abroad as well by the private sector with the help of government.

With increased demand for Philippine coffee, Luz, who is also a director of the National Coffee Board, expects better prices for local farmers which will serve as an incentive for them to plant more.

While demand for local coffee beans was placed at 55,000 tons this year, production is expected to reach only 35,000 tons. But Luz expects that once the whole program is in place, production will easily outpace demand in two years time.

MBC is working with the National Coffee Development Board in the development and implementation of a best practices and credit delivery program in 22 coffee-growing provinces. One of the components of the program will be a P310-million credit facility through Quedancor geared towards giving credit assistance to small farmers with farm sizes of two hectares and below.

The program is also looking at an additional 22,000 hectares of land planted in 22 provinces to be planted to coffee, as well as increasing yield from 0.5 ton per hectare to 1.5 tons per hectare.

Another component involves the coffee bean millers who will have to undergo a certification program to be implemented by the International Coffee Organization Certifying Agency (ICO-CA) under the Department of Trade and Industry.

Meanwhile, coffee retailers such as Seattle’s Best have committed to lobby hard with their head office to sell Philippine coffee in their outlets. The same holds true for Starbucks, which is already offering the Vinta blend in its outlets. The Vinta blend is basically arabica from Bukidnon.

"Basically, we want all hotels, restaurants, and other eating establishments to sell only Filipino coffee. And later on, we will be looking at getting the country back to exporting coffee which it last did in the late 80s and early 90s," Luz said.

He revealed that some of the companies that have committed to help in this campaign include Nestle, Commonwealth Foods Corp. (CFC), General Milling Corp. (GMC), and Universal Robina Corp. (URC) which are the big four in the soluble instance coffee market in the country.

Right now, the coffee board is creating the design material for the Kape Isla‚ brand that will be promoted very soon in fairs and exhibits abroad and other international shows.

Asked why MBC decides to zero in on the coffee industry, Luz explained that they are trying to create models of development and identifying the formula for success. "If it can work in the coffee industry, it can work in others," he said.