Philippines-February-2025

Our trip to the Philippines coffee lands was informative and a bit daunting. We found an industry that had been largely neglected for over a decade, but we also learned that government and non-government organizations had recently launched some far-reaching programs to address the rejuventation of fields that had fallen out of active use.

Philippine farmers had been discouraged by the crash of coffee prices at the turn of the century, and had largely not ever come back from that experience. Fields had been ripped out to be replaced by vegetable farming, and productive coffee groves were allowed to grow untended until they became so tall that it is now a challenge to pick the coffee cherries. 

We were transfixed while touring "ancient" coffee farms that had been first planted as long as 70 years ago. Theoretically, the productive life of coffee plants is considered to be 20-30 years... but we saw farmers climbing 50-foot tall plants that their 90-year grandfather had planted as a young adult. The problem is that production on these old trees is low, and labor high, so farmers have ceased relying on these groves for any substantial part of their income.

But they have become aware in the last few years that the demand and pricing of coffee has been skyrocketing, so we found them very interested in learning how to rejuvenate their fields. Some had gone so far as to send representatives to Manila to take part of the education program on growing coffee and rejuvenating old plants... which largely is matter of bending the trees over and pruning or topping them and encouraging new growth. As well as removing excessive shade trees that might be robbing them of water and nutrients and sun.

There are some amusing aspects to the lack of knowledge among the current caretakers of these groves... in most cases, they could not even remember what varieties of coffee were growing in them :-) This means there is a treasure trove of heirloom genes in these plants and fields... but it has also set us on a path of "forensic" study to try to assess what species and subspecies we are dealing with.

Also, we were traveling among the indigenous tribes of Northern Mindinao where ancient practices prevail... on the old forest grove shown here, a revered banyan treen had overgrown the coffee trees and was robbing them of sun and water. They refused to consider cutting down this tree, because the soul of their ancester lived within the tree. They did agree, however, to prune it... but only after sacrificing 3 chickens and performing the appropriate respectiful ritual. They have also been busy interplanting new bushes.

But we also found active fields operated by farmers with extremely sophistication in the practical knowledge of how to grow and process coffee. Particularly in the Benguet region in Northern Luzon we found incredibly delicious coffee, and despite the fact that we were between harvest seasons, we were able to bring back one cherished "nectar" process Arabica from the province of Tuba that truly knocked our socks off. And depleted our wallets, we won't say what we had to pay to get the farmer to part with their last 10 kilos of this microlot. We have put it on sale in our World Coffee Bus Tour category on the web.

In general, our trip was made in tandem with representatives from government programs and the Redemptorists, who are committed to helping indigenous peoples and bringing coffee knowledge and farming assistance to these fields and farmers. This is a 3-5 year program that will result eventually in us having access to large supplies of the best Filipino coffees of all species... Arabica, Robusta, Liberica and Excelsa.

In the meantime we are contracting for current supplies of Excelsa and Liberica as they reach harvest time, and will be bring what we can find from these ongoing excursions for all of our customers to enjoy.