A VALLEY festival is set in stone come March.
La Trinidad Mayor Romeo Salda said the municipality have long planned the coffee gathering to link coffee producers and consumers with the help of the Department of Agriculture, Department of Tourism, Department of Trade and Industry, Benguet State University and the different local government units with coffee stakeholders.
Salda said “We talked with Henry and Sons Coffee roasters together with DOT Regional Director Venus Tan in a plan on having a coffee festival in the Valley in March.”
Stakeholders for the festival will be coffee growers, baristas and other government line agencies.
Salda said data gathered earlier proves the feasible outcome of arabica coffee production in the municipality “Now we are preparing our coffee farmers from almost all the barangay to prepare them to make it as their livelihood, the different agencies are going to help them in production, processing and marketing of the product not just locally but even abroad, instead of having the imported coffee.”
The Department of Trade and Industry has invested on coffee processing equipment needed for quality arabica coffee now in Ampasit, Longlong.
The festival aims to recognize the contribution of the coffee producers of world class beans since the industry boomed in 2000.
The Office of the Municipal Agriculturist that an estimated 17,000 metric tons of Arabica coffee beans was produced in the town last year.