Sarangani Coffee Farmers attend PCE 2022

Through the Sarangani Coffee Industry Development Council and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Safe Water project, some coffee farmers from the province attended the face-to-face Philippine Coffee Expo (PCE) 2022 that ran from September 14-15, at SMX Convention Center at SM Lanang Premier in Davao City.

The coffee event is said to be the largest gathering of the coffee industry players and stakeholders in the country.

This year’s theme is Climate Change and Coffee. PCE 2022 is a special avenue for the entire coffee industry of the Philippines to converge together and tackle key challenges and opportunities through technical discussions, presentations of new technologies to increase productivity and quality, and build networks within the coffee sector.

“This event is important to us farmers because we learn new trends and farming technology that we can apply in our coffee farms. We can also get the opportunity to network with other farmers and industry players,” Sarangani Coffee Industry Development Council Chairperson and Inag Coffee owner Renny Boy Takyawan said.

According to Terrence J. Ryan, chief of party of the Philippine Coffee Advancement and Farm Enterprise (PhilCAFE), there were 60 booths and 27 coffee carts at the expo. There were also 1,000 delegates comprising those involved in the coffee supply chain that joined the plenary.

The expo invited Philippine and international speakers who discussed coffee, climate change, coffee quality, marketing, the role of the Q Standard in the Philippine Specialty Coffee Sector, among others.

PCE 2022 had a Throwdown Competition organized by the Philippine Coffee Guild, which has Latte Art, Brewdown and Cup Tasters competitions. The coffee expo also had breakout sessions called Kape’t Kwentuhan that tackled coffee related topics.

“This event was originally scheduled for April of 2020 so we are off-cycle. Normally we would be doing this in collaboration with PCQC (Philippine Coffee Quality Competition) but we decided to pursue it because we were waiting for two and half years and we were able to gather, mass gathering is allowed now so we go ahead with it,” Ryan said.

Ryan said the expo was a great opportunity to promote the coffee sector and bring the people together.

Coffee is experiencing a strong period of growth and popularity currently in the Philippines and the industry’s specialty sector is expanding in capacity and competitiveness in recent years.

The Sarangani Coffee Council encourages local farmers to plant more coffee trees because of its high demand in both local and international markets. Despite its recent progress, the Philippine coffee sector remains in need of support to become competitive and profitable for coffee farmers throughout the country.

The USAID Safe Water project supports small coffee farmers in the country through fund technical assistance and training programs; improve capacity to produce and market high quality coffee; improve access to finance, markets and farm inputs, among others.

PhilCAFE aims to boost the production of conventional and specialty coffee and coffee exports from the Philippines. PhilCAFE is an activity funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and implemented by ACDI/VOCA.

Coffee is one of the industries that the ACDI/VOCA have an intervention in. ACDI/VOCA have provided technical assistance and special grants to coffee farmers and stakeholders to help boost the industry.

“We are thankful for the technical assistance of our government agencies and NGOs for the local coffee industry. Their support means a lot especially to the farmers,” Takyawan said.

The PCE 2022 is organized by the Philippine Coffee Guild and the Davao Region Coffee Council with support from the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Department of Trade and Industry, in collaboration with the PhilCAFE Project which is funded by USDA and implemented by ACDI/VOCA. (Genory Vanz Alfasain/Sarangani Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc.)

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