The Department of Agriculture in the Cordillera Administrative Region (DA-CAR) urged local residents boost coffee production and take advantage of the economic gains from growing the high-value crop to help reduce the country’s dependence on imported coffee.

“We have to plant more coffee because we are still importing at least 70 percent of the country’s coffee supply that is used as fresh coffee beans or processed as instant coffee,” Jennilyn Dawayan, DA-CAR regional technical director for research and regulations, said Thursday during the opening of the 5th La Trinidad Coffee Festival.

Besides easing importation, she said boosting local production also means more income to coffee-growers as the DA, through the High-Value Crops Development Program (HVCDP), has listed coffee as a high-value crop, with green coffee beans sold from PHP300 to PHP450 a kilo.

During the Coffee Congress or by the Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP) in Davao two months ago, Dayawan said coffee from La Trinidad was sold at PHP1,000 a kilo.

“Unfortunately, only five kilograms were brought during the event. So, these are proofs of a good venture if you will go into coffee production,” she said.

She said La Trinidad has all the facilities in coffee production – from a nursery for quality seedlings to a post-harvest facility – making the town capable of competing in the market.

From 2013 to 2022, La Trinidad coffee growers availed of a PHP2.7 million assistance for a post-harvest coffee processing facility, a certified seedlings nursery. These are aside from the packaging supplies, training, and skills enhancement to assure that they will go on improving their quality and increase their income.

Dayawan said the locals have also learned coffee grading criteria based on the fragrance/aroma, flavor, acidity, body and uniformity following the international standard.

“If there is one product in the region that we are truly proud of, it is coffee. The Cordillera is Best Arabica Coffee Producer in the Philippines. We have been winning in the Philippine Quality Coffee Competition (PCQC) and we have the advantage because we have the suitable climatic condition,” she said. (PNA)