Gourmet Farms sees 30% growth in coffee business

Gourmet Farms Inc. (GFI) is projecting a 30 percent growth in its coffee business this year as it plans to start exporting its premium coffee brand to the United States, Canada and the Middle East.

GFI, owned by businessman Ernest Escaler, is projecting sales of P60 million from its coffee business alone. Last year, its coffee sales amounted to P45 million.

Aside from coffee, GFI also offers organic produce  and a range of salad dressings and pasta sauces under its Kitchen Exclusives brand.

In an interview with The STAR, Escaler said they plan to start exporting roasted coffee to the US, Canada and the Middle East to boost the company’s coffee sales still limited to the Metro Manila market.

Gourmets roasted coffee is a premium brand sold in high-end supermarkets in Metro Manila together with the Kitchen Exclusives line of salad dressings and pasta sauces.

GFI also supplies local supermarkets and restaurants with its fresh organic produce and herbs.

Gourmets is considered one of the pioneers in the domestic roasted coffee business.

GFI  was incorporated in December 1987 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of ECI Trading Corp. (ECITC), then a  Board of Investments-registered exporter of Philippine green coffee beans.

GFI’s business, aside from Gourmets coffee and Kitchen Exclusives, also include an eight-hectare organic farm in Silang, Cavite.

But the coffee business is the most profitable operation, with the organic produce and Kitchen Exclusives brand doing only about half of the coffee sales, Escaler noted.

Last year, the organic fresh produce business brought in sales of about P25 million,  while the Kitchen Exclusives line posted sales of around P20 million.

For this year, fresh produce is expected to post sales of around P28 million and Kitchen Exclusives, P23 million.

While GFI’s products are currently sold only in Metro Manila, Escaler said they will start selling their products in Cebu and later in Mindanao.

GFI is also ready to start exporting directly to the US, Canada and the Middle East as it has already noted that some companies have been exporting their products due to the increasing popularity of gourmet coffee.

GFI roasts its own coffee and was one of only a handful that pioneered the business even before Starbucks and other international coffee chains came to the Philippines.

In fact, along with his famous roasted coffee, Escaler also put up the famous Gourmets Café that introduced the concept of fresh garden salads and pastas.