Only 15% of the coffee supplied to Nestlé Philippines is from domestic production; the company imports the remaining 85%. Nestlé recently announced plans to change this imbalance by increasing the proportion of coffee beans it sources locally.
The realistic target is to increase it to 20% by 2025. Our factories prefer local beans because they’re easier to process.
Atty. Olive Misa, Vice President for Public Affairs, Nestlé Philippines
The Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) is working hand in hand with the private sector to boost local coffee production. DA and Nestlé Philippines have discussed a collaboration aimed at boosting Philippine coffee production with the company’s full support in implementing the coffee industry roadmap 2021-2025.
The 5-year plan focuses on improving farmers’ technical know-how and infrastructure to achieve higher yields and better incomes. Part of the strategy is also for the government to increase local coffee supply, which in turn should boost production. In addition, new databases will be set up to facilitate access to important information such as production volume and purchase price.
Nestlé and DA expect to increase the yield of dried coffee cherries from 0.8 kg per tree to 2 kg per tree by 2025, which corresponds to a coffee yield of about 1,000 kg per hectare. The roadmap also “aims to increase the total area of coffee production to 146,656 hectares by 2026, up from 118,310 hectares in 2022”.
The Philippines produces about 450,000 60-kg bags of coffee per year. Production has declined by about 3.5% annually over the past decade. The country grows all four major coffee varieties: Arabica, Robusta, Exelsa and Liberica, of which 90% is Robusta.
Despite the downward trend, certain regions, such as Mindanao, have increased their yields. Nestlé aims to sustain this trend by setting up a coffee research centre in Sultan Kudarat. Nestlé has called on the government to promote more sustainable and higher-quality production, which is also part of the 5-year plan.
The government has agreed to fund the revival of nearly 500,000 old coffee trees and will distribute funds to local coffee farmers for the purchase of planting materials. Nestlé will fund the maintenance of production facilities and research and development programmes towards meeting its long-term goal of sourcing all coffee locally.
