This capital town gears to further increase its coffee production by planting more trees and adopting technologies.

“We have prepared 20,000 seedlings for planting as soon as the rainy season starts this year so that we can improve our production,” Nida Organo, municipal agriculturist, said on the sidelines of the opening of the town’s “8th Coffee Festival” on Monday.

Organo said some residents planted at least 10 trees each in 2024 after seeing the potential of coffee in terms of income and market. A total of at least 5,000 coffee seedlings were planted that year.

The town earlier targeted to plant 25,000 trees starting 2025 and more in the next four years.

The Municipal Agriculture Office record earlier showed that a total of 99,000 fruit-bearing coffee trees in different parts of the town produced 10.4 metric tons of green beans in 2023.

Organo said the residents have also started applying technologies such as rejuvenating old trees and “topping”, which is done by cutting the top portions of the trees to allow them to branch out and have more areas for the berries to grow.

“Since we started the festival, we have seen numerous improvements in our coffee industry with more coffee shops opening, more coffee growers and the tree production increasing from 300 grams production per year for a tree to one kilo a year for a tree,” she said.

She said that with the training provided to coffee growers, the quality has also improved, with a cupping rate of 80 percent in the national coffee competition.

Organo said coffee is a high-value crop dictating a good price, with a PHP350 to PHP480 per kilo farmgate price for the green beans; and about PHP800 to PHP1,300 for the roasted beans depending on the quality.

She said marketing and sales are not a problem for the coffee industry but the supply and production are, with more buyers and individuals utilizing the locally produced arabica coffee variety.

There are more than 700 coffee farmers in the municipality but the local government unit continues to urge residents to utilize their idle spaces to grow the crop.

Organo added the Coffee Festival was conceptualized to create market linkages, invite coffee shops to open, and for restaurants and direct buyers to get involved in the industry by growing, producing and consuming the product. (PNA)