THE government should bank on science to prop up local coffee yield amid price swings in the international market, according to the Philippine Coffee Board Inc. (PCBI).
With this, PCBI Chairperson Chit Juan urged the government to establish a Philippine Coffee Research Institute that would help farmers test soil quality and provide varieties suitable for their specific soil types.
‘In other towns famous for coffee, farmers have access to an institute where they can have their intercrops and soil analyzed to help them scientifically. We lack science,’ Juan told reporters on the sidelines of the 1st Philippine Coffee Sustainability Congress held last week.
‘Other countries are already studying what kind of coffee a farmer should plant if the environment warms up by another 5 degrees. Will this robusta variety still thrive in this soil? So, we need the institute for plant varieties and soil quality.’
Juan said establishing the institute would cost a modest P40 to P50 million, since the land would already be owned by the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI).
She pins her hopes on the funding being included in the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) budget for 2026, which should be coursed through the BPI.
‘The BPI’s facilities already exist. It just needs to be expanded and staffed to have more personnel so that someone can really focus on the research,’ Juan said.
If the DA’s budget for 2026 allocates funding for the research institute, she said it would be operational by next year.
With volatile coffee quotations in the world market, Juan noted that the domestic coffee sector should capitalize on producing high-quality beans.
‘We do have sporadic exports. So, our farmers get to experience high prices right now,’ she said. ‘But to take advantage of [volatile prices abroad] is to give the best of our coffees. High-quality beans should be the standard.’
Data from the World Bank showed that the average price of the arabica coffee variety surged by 44 percent to $8.83 per kilo in September from $6.12 in the same period last year.
While the robusta variety dropped by 13 percent to $4.66 per kilo in the reference month from $5.33 per kilo last year, World Bank figures indicated that it had been steadily increasing over the past three months.
In 2024, local coffee output reached an eight-year high of nearly 32,000 metric tons (MT) from the average 30,000 MT yield, based on Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data.
Juan raised concerns, however, about the current government support for the domestic coffee sector, which mostly leans toward post-harvest machinery.
‘It seems as if every bean should be roasted, which on our end shouldn’t be all there is because it’s just a temporary happiness for the farmer to be able to roast and sell,’ she said.
Juan noted that roasting would be a ‘short-term’ solution, since it wouldn’t enhance bean quality and would not address the country’s lack of coffee trees.
‘This is not to say that the plans to provide post-harvest facilities are wrong. But we need to concentrate on research, climate resilience, and the sustainability of the entire industry, not just the processing,’ she said.