COFFEES from Mindanao were hailed the best during the first ever Philippine coffee quality competition, Kape Pilipino: Green Coffee Quality Competition held at the Cavite State University on February 27 to March 4.
The competition was hosted by the Philippine Coffee Board Inc. and the Agricultural Cooperative Development International (Acdi/Voca) and was open to everyone involved in coffee production in the Philippines, including but not limited to coffee cooperatives, farmers, processors, and exporters.
For Arabica category, Inhandig Tribal Multi-Purpose Cooperative (ITMPC) from Malaybalay, Bukidnon garnered the highest score of 85.75 points. The cooperative was founded by 20 members mostly coming from the Inhandig indigenous peple. ITMPC became Acdi/Voca Mindanao Productivity in Agricultural Commerce and Trade (MinPact) project in 2015. Because of this, the community cooperative grew to 300 members at present. This project helped farmer-members better their coffee production through technical trainings and seminars. Leadership and agribusiness management seminars were also given to the cooperative leaders.
For Robusta category, Kape Maramag, still of Bukidnon was awarded 83.42 points.
According to Imelda Mendoza, President of Kape Maramag, Acdi/Voca had helped them train some of their members for three different trainings relating to coffee production for the last year such as land preparation management, coffee management, and the most recent, the coffee cupping training. Mendoza also said they observe the natural harvesting, drying, and roasting when processing their coffee beans.
Both the winners will be sent to Seattle, Washington on April 19 bringing with them their winning coffee samples to showcase in the Specialty Coffee Global Expo, an event by the Specialty Coffee Association of America.
“We’ll be bringing green beans and processed robusta coffee. We will exhibit our sample there from April 19 to 27. There will be expected businessmen to contact us. Included in the expo is also the marketing of our product,” said Mendoza.
Kape Maramag is open to exporting their coffee but Mendoza said they are still preparing for it. Currently, Kape Maramag coffees are still being sold domestically. They are also considering looking for a distributor in case there would be an immediate appearance of foreign markets.
During a previous report, Thelonious Trimmell of Acdi/Voca, said the booming coffee shop industry in the country reflects the need to develop Philippines’ coffee industry to be able to produce high-quality coffees.