A Media Familiarization Tour on Kalinga’s Coffee Industry

Revitalizing the Coffee Industry in the Cordilleras

A Media Familiarization Tour in Tabuk City, Province of Kalinga

Revitalizing the coffee industry in the Cordilleras Text and photos by Dave Leprozo jr

Studies worldwide suggests that eight in every ten people around the world drink coffee everyday from sunup till sundown four to six cups on a daily basis for the connoisseurs and two cups for the start-ers. Coffee drinking has gone global as coffee shops sprouted in every nook and crannies around the world. The Cordillera region in Northern Philip-pines is very conducive to coffee grow-ing due to its terrain and weather as its is ranked as a major coffee producer in the Philippines till the eighties, recently it landed only as sixth coffee producing region surpassed by Bukidnon, SOCCS-KARGEN, Davao, Calabarzon, Western

Visayas and Western Mindanao. Kalinga province in the Cordillera region is a major producer of coffee with around 3,852 hectares , the largest total land area planted to Coffee in the Cordillera region’s six provinces. While the province of Ifugao, Mountain Province and Benguet ranks in respectively with a total, land area of around 1,686.5 hectares for which four varieties of coffee are grown namely Arabica, Excel-sia, Liberica and Robusta which is the most sought after variety due to its aroma and body. Recent studies made by the Department of trade and Industry notes that the country can only meet around twenty percent of the local consumption thus the very heavy importation of the country from Indonesia and Vietnam who are making headway in the export of coffee worldwide. The coffee industry saw its golden years in Kalinga during the early seventies till the eighties according to Lawrence Bayongan City Administrator of Tabuk City, who grew up enjoying the ben-efits of his family’s coffee farm and among his fellow Ikalingas who were thriving in the coffee business. With the coming in of business men hailing from Tuguegarao an adjacent town and a business center in Cagayan province, who monopolized the buying of coffee beans in the Kalinga provinces while Coffee farmers cannot meet the demands of food giant company Nestle, and exacting very low price on the coffee beans. Farmers were forced to diversify into corn production in-stead thus abandoning coffee farming . Coffee drinking is a daily fare and tradition among Cordillerans as one would experience upon visiting the area, as everyone would be welcomed and invited for a cup or two in every house-hold, readily available steaming hot.

Ms.Juana Bayon a coffee farmer from Benguet as she har-

vests rippened coffee beans

Rufina Wacdayan and Martha Podac Coffee farmers from

Tanudan,Kalinga going about with their daily farm chores

DTI Asst. Sec. Ceferino Rodolfo on a coffee farm inspec-

tion in Tabuk,Kalinga.

Rufina Wacdayan and Martha Podac coffee farmers as

they deshell coffee beans.

Revitalizing the Coffee Industry in the Cordilleras

A Media Familiarization Tour in Tabuk City, Province of Kalinga

Coffee production can also be intercropped with fruit bearing trees like rambutan, lanzones and various types of citrus fruits and a medium of reforestation being instituted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources which showed positive results in the Cordillera region. With recent development and trends in the global con-sumption of coffee the Department of Trade and In-dustry spearheaded by Asec Ceferino Rodolfo who makes it a point to visit areas with coffee growing in-terest and farmers to see firsthand on how the Depart-ment of Trade and Industry will be of help.

The Department of Trade and Industry Department of Agriculture and other government line agencies partnering with peo-ples organizations launched its thrust towards revitalizing the coffee industry in the Philippines to meet up with local and global demands. Setting up technical, financial and marketing assistance to farmers ,with these developments there is a growing interest among farmers in the Cordillera region to kick start coffee production and for those who laid their coffee farms unproduc-tive for quite some time the new government incentive is a welcome development. As government agencies converge and thrust towards “One country, One Team for Cordillera Coffee. This too is in line with the Philippines commitment of cooperation to the Asean Economic Community (AEC).

Mrs.Sunshine Sacki-Molintas with her harvest of rambutan which she inter-cropped with Coffee

Coffee Mix and Media Tour By Art Tibaldo In every major undertaking that needed the acceptance and support of a particular local-ity and the greater community around it, or-ganizers usually engage the media as a po-tent force that ventilates the promotion of

said programs or projects being implemented. Recently, I was part of such undertaking and the role of the so-called fourth estate was highly appreciated. I have joined media familiarization tour back in the mid 90s and the likes of it usually exposes writers and photojournalists to cultural and trade programs that are usually coincided during town fiestas or foun-dation days. My coverage of the Lang-ay Festival in Bontoc, Mountain Province, Imbayah of Banaue Ifugao, Ullalim of Kalinga and even the early stages of Baguio’s Panagbenga made me part of a birth of a tradi-tion. The expected role of organizers is to invite and accommodate members of the press while the later provides publicity and promotion of the event organized. A two day media familiarization tour was recently held in Tabuk City of the province of Kalinga and the activity aims to promote the coffee in-dustry of the upland region and find its niche at least in gourmet and specialty coffee shops in the country. Although the region only ranks as 7th top producer of coffee in the country, The Regional Development Council endorsed it as the banner industry of the Cordillera Administrative Region. Besides, the growth of more coffee plants in the slopes, mountains and hills in this upland re-gion can also help the National Greening Program, prevent erosion and provide a cash crop to the local community. As part of my task as trade information officer, I led a media group composed of national correspondents and local reporters to the city of Tabuk for a media forum and tour to a coffee farm. The Department of Trade and Industry team from Manila led by Assistant Secretary Perry Rodolfo arrived with Zacharias Sarian, the agribusiness editor of Manila Bulletin. Zac was accompanied by communication management spe-cialist Precious Leano via a delayed flight to Tuguegarao and reached Tabuk at around 9PM. The Baguio team is composed of Marilou Guieb of Business Mirror and Baguio Chronicle, Dave Leprozo of GMA News, JM Agreda of 9-News Karlston Lapniten of www.rappler.com with the ABS-CBN crew from TV Patrol Baguio composed of reporter Micaela Ilao and cameraman Albert Manangan. It was the first time that Marilou and Micaela reached the new city of Tabuk and it's probably Mica's first field exposure to a coverage that takes at least two to three days. Fresh from college, she is the youngest of the team and and Zac of Bulletin is the oldest at over 70. The Kalinga based news team are composed of Estanislao Albano of Zigzag Weekly, Hazel Gup-ay of DZRK Radio ng Bayan Tabuk, Geraldine Dumallig of the Philippine Information Agency and the Cagayan and Kalinga team of UNTV led by Marco Caspe. We knew that coffee cannot make trending news and the fact that ty-

phoon Mario landfalls within the vicinity made me worry that our event may turn out to be an indoor activity. Though an hour delayed, the morning program proceeded with the introductory part and welcome messages by the city and province representatives followed by the me-dia roundtable discussions with Asec Rodolfo who discussed the differ-ent trade policies, game plan and economic initiative that RP is under-taking in support with the ASEAN Economic Community 2015. Rodolfo stressed that the AEC is more of complementation rather than competi-tion and the ASEAN is one of the fastest growing regions in the world. The familiarization tour brought us to Barangay Gawidan along the mighty Chico River and Magallaya Mountain where members of our me-dia group took shots of tattooed women inspecting the Robusta coffee farms. Close up photos of tattooed hands were also shot with the dried coffee beans to illustrate a mix of industry and culture in this part of the Cordillera. The coffee processing in Gawidan shows the Department of Labor and Industry’s livelihood facilities that compliments DTI’s, Shared Services Facilities, DOST’s Set Up and other agency’s intervention in terms of training and technical assistance. Because of the rising river waters caused by typhoon Mario, we cancelled the planned tour to the Balawag Multi-purpose Cooperative earlier visited DTI Sec. Gregory Domingo when the SSF for coffee were provided to boost the productivi-ty of its members. We listened to the stories of Zita Degay who specializes on the pro-cessing and marketing of the Alamid or Kape Luwak, the specialty cof-fee from the excretion of civet cats gathered at the slopes of Magallaya Mountain. Estrella Balnao of the Gawidan Farmer’ Association and Pe-nelope Daluson of the Balawag MPC also shared their success stories convincing agriculture editor Zac to buy five sachets of ground coffee. There were of course sidelights like the coverage of the team of Mica on the destructive eels of Kalinga where they were able to shoot actual catching of eels. PAGASA forecast and news about the landfall of Ty-phoon Mario in the Kalinga and Cagayan Valley area must have kept our family members praying but the reverse happened as it batters Ba-guio-Benguet and caused flooding in Metro Manila. Marco of UNTV had to leave during the morning event in order to provide news coverage of the storm affected areas in the Cagayan Valley. After two days spent in Tabuk City covering a coffee industry related event organized by the Department of Trade and Industry, we received updates on the onslaught of Typhoon Mario where the province of Kalin-ga and the rest of Cagayan Valley is said to be within the eye of the storm. Hearing news about the closure of the Nueva Viscaya-Benguet Road, we decided to take the upland trail going back to Baguio. Starting at early 7AM of Friday, September 20, 2014, we motored towards Bontoc, Mountain Province passing by the Chico River Diversion Dam for some pictures for our files. We followed the mighty Chico River from downstream Tabuk City to its headwaters in Bauko of upper Mountain Province. Along our way up to Bontoc following the Chico River which was the

subject to an opposition and uprising by the local community that will be greatly affected by the proposed mega-dam during the Mar-tial Law years of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, we noticed the patches of slash-and-burn farming system known as Kaingin. From what it appeared at the road sides, these were planted by corn validating the statement of Lawrence Bayongan who spoke in behalf of Mayor Ferdinand Tubban that coffee farmers including his family shifted to planting maize as a cash crop because coffee before was controlled by middlemen and Chinese businessmen based in Isabela and Cagayan. Compared to Arabica, the Robusta coffee leaves are much larger we noticed these varieties inter-spersed with other crops and trees such as Mahogany and Narra. The sight along the road was truly breathtaking as we were also monitoring through SMS and radio reports about the situations and updates of Typhoon Mario. There were land falls, fallen rocks and trees along the way and our ride, a commuter van inched its way in every bumps and humps that are common along Cordillera trails. We stopped at every sight of obstruction delaying our trip while we clear and remove what may impede the low chassis and wide body of our rented vehicle. What truly made us consider re-turning all the way to where we came from and pass through the same lowland highway is the rockslide along Saclit of Tinglayan which is just 22 Kilometers away from Bontoc, the capital town of Mountain Province. Pressed for time and the need to be home at least within the day, we rolled our sleeves, picked up pieces of slabs and removed the bigger and protruding rocks that may have hit the crank case and differentials or earlier vehicles that passed by. Ignoring the haz-ards of cascading earth and the deep ravine just inches below, we somehow managed to layer pieces of stones that the 16" tires and low clearance or the van managed to pass through. There were good samaritans who also joined us figure out how we can pass altogether and they also helped push the van until it reached the point where it can steer towards the cleared road. We had a good lunch at the Tchayapas with the usual exchanges of notes and jokes with its manager, also a seasoned journalist Gregory Tagui-ba. JM Agreda was also called by his TV-9 news desk while we were passing through the twin peaks of Gonogon and he managed to feed a voice report as we pass by the wet, windy and slippery trail. We arrived in Baguio just before it gets dark at 6:30PM of September 20 2014 and we all managed to take a taxicab home leaving the van driver figuring out how he can car wash his ride, fix some parts and perhaps treat his family to dinner and prepare for his next trip to Tuguegarao the next day. As for me, I needed something to warm me up and so I prepared a good coffee brew. Soon, the brew you are drinking in your favorite specialty coffee shop, will be from the Cordilleras as local coffee farmers and trad-ers in the Cordilleras are priming to penetrate specialty coffee shops in urban areas in the country.

PRDP national review committee okays Kalinga Coffee Business Plan By Geraldine Dumallig TABUK CITY, Kalinga, Sept. 19 (PIA)- - The Kalinga’s Cof-fee Business Plan got the nod of the National Project Coor-dination Office of the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) for endorsement “as the country’s bet for World Bank funding.” Provincial Agriculturist Engr. Domingo Bakilan said the proposed business plan would cost P14,804,033 of which P12,404.033.33 will be for the enterprise project cost and P2.4 million for the Kalinga Trading Post. Projects will focus on the enhancement of the bean production and

quality.

The Dupligan Farmers Multi-purpose Cooperative (DUFAMCO) is the proponent of the pro-ject with the Tanudan Savings and Lending Cooperative (TASALECO), Mananig Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MAMPCO),Gawidan Farmers Association, Patiking-Bulaguian Farm-ers Association and Nambucayan Farmers Association as Enterprise Cluster Members

(Affiliates).

According to Bakilan, currently coffee farmers in the province sell dry processed unsorted green beans to local buyers who dictate the price, but with the proposed enterprise the farm-ers would be given a chance to get a better price per kilogram. Products will include wet method processed Robusta coffee green beans, modified dry method processed Robusta

coffee green beans, and dry method processed Robusta coffee green beans.

Based on the plan, the affiliates buy red picked fresh berries and then process following wet, modified dry and dry methods to produce green beans and sell to the Trading Center at 6-10% mark-up. They would also buy dry processed sorted green beans at 7% higher than the buying price of the local buyers. The DUFAMCO as the lead proponent consolidates the cof-fee green beans and sell to network of regional and national buyers with a 10.8 to 12.8%

mark-up.

The coffee enterprise will be managed as cooperative where dividends and patronage re-funds will be distributed. And the affiliates have to convert to cooperatives after a year. The provincial government through the Kalinga Coffee Council had seen the potential to develop the coffee production as a major economic activity in the province. From the 1970 to 1980

Kalinga was once a top producer of coffee nationwide.

At present, Kalinga ranks 7th nationwide and first in the Cordillera Administrative Region contributing 69% of the CAR’s total coffee production. In the current world market cof-fee, coffee is the most traded commodity second to oil worldwide. Based on the Philippine Coffee Board studies, domestic demand for coffee green beans is also expected to increase by five percent annually and the demand for green beans will be 100,000 MT compared to the current local supply of only 25,000 MT. Coffee shops also continue to grow since coffee drinking has become a very popular social activity and that coffee shops become status

symbol and places for business meetings.

With these opportunities, the proposed enterprise would help generate more income for the local farmers by pre-processing, consolidating and marketing quality coffee green beans for

higher selling price, Bakilan said. (JDP/GGD- PIA-CAR, Kalinga)

Growing de-mand for cof-fee to benefit farmers, SMEs

9News Philippines

http://www.9news.ph/news/regional

Tabuk City, Kalinga – The Department of Trade and

Industry (DTI) called on small and medium enterprises

(SMEs) to target the growing demand for premium cof-

fee in local coffee shops in the country amid concerns

of coffee stakeholders on the possible impacts of the

ASEAN Economic Integration in 2015 to the local cof-

fee industry.

DTI Assistant Secretary Ceferino Rodolfo encouraged

coffee farmers, producers, and traders to find niche

markets to gain an advantage over other Southeast

Asian countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, and Ma-

laysia.

Coffee production has slowly grown in this province

through the years – with farmers now supplying Arabi-

ca and Robusta coffee in various hotels in Metro Ma-

nila, Subic, and Baguio City.

The DTI official said that finding niche markets such as

local supermarkets, organic deli stores, restaurants,

and specialty coffee shops can help in making the local

coffee supply chain more profitable for farmers in the

region.

Despite the low production of coffee in the country,

providing farmers with these niche markets will boost

their income which can provide local cooperatives that

produce these specialty indigenous coffees more fund-

ing to buy new equipment and packaging materials and

to reach out to new markets. The DTI has been assisting local coffee producers in the Cordillera region through shared service facilities which include roasting, de-pulping, grinding, packaging, and sealing of coffee. – 9News Online, with a report from JM Agreda

Published by Art Tibaldo