Around 40 coffee towns, which will need P6.4 billion investment in new land, are envisioned to be put up all over the country so as to meet the projected 89,638 metric tons (MT) in coffee demand by 2020.

A fresh strategy on the country’s coffee sufficiency program is looking at either forest lands or agrarian reform lands as a way to expand the country’s existing coffee farms.

These lands may presently be covered by Community-Based Forest Management Agreements (CBFMA) or Certificates of Ancestral Titles and Claims (CADT/CADC).

It will raise productivity from the 400-kilo current yield to around 700 kilos through location-specific technologies.

After several years of hoping to implement a coffee roadmap, a multi-sectoral group eye new coffee expansion lands which will raise hectarage by an additional 48,055 hectares, up by 60 percent from 80,000 hectares as of 2004. This group is being led by the National Coffee Development Board (NCDB) and the National Academy of Science and Technology-Committee on Industrial Crops Coffee Industry Cluster.

Investments need to be poured into the coffee sector as revenue from it is estimated at P4.5 billion, and about 500,000 farmers, laborers, traders, millers, processing company workers depend on it for livelihood.

Over a 14-year period from 1990-2004, the country earned $654 million from coffee export. However, the country has been importing a significant volume of coffee beans, 30,000 MT yearly or around 60 percent of demand since 2004.

The coffee sufficiency strategy indicated that CBFMA lands overseen by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DERN) may be turned over to local government units (LGUs). In turn, LGUs can partner with farmers and legitimate residents in these lands for coffee planting.