So goes the famous saying: If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. In our case, if life gives you Robusta, make Robusta coffee. What do I mean? We, the Philippines, are blessed to be able to grow four varieties of coffee: Robusta, Excelsa, Arabica and Liberica (REAL is the mnemonic, if you want to impress friends and remember these). Of the four about 90 percent of our production is the Robusta variety or Coffea canephora. So, does it not make sense to focus on our Robusta, make it better and increase its value? That crossed our minds as we planned to ensure the sustainability of our coffee industry.
A lot of data shows that we consume more coffee than what we produce – about 70 percent of our consumption is now imported mostly in instant variants, the famous “3 in 1,” coffee mixes with herbs and other forms of ready to drink and soluble coffee. But what about the little coffee we produce? Why do not we make better value out of it? There is increasing demand for brewed coffee or what the industry calls “roast and ground,” and for this type we need to improve the coffee harvest from start to finish. That means optimizing our production and making sure we get the highest value for our meager lot.
A colleague of ours suggested to reach out to the Robusta rockstar, Nishant Gurjer, a Bangalore, India farm estate owner. Nishant obliged and will grace our First Coffee Sustainability Congress scheduled for Oct. 23 in Makati. Nishant has managed to produce good quality Robusta and has the certifications for organic, fair trade and coffee grown in forests which has given his coffee better value in the Indian and world markets. India is one of the top ten producers of coffee in the world and Kaapi Royale, Nishant’s company, is a known producer of quality Robusta.
An Arabica farmer commented: Why Robusta? And I replied: Why not? Because if 90 percent of our production is Robusta, who will give it the impetus to be the answer to sustainability of our coffee industry? Well, this Coffee Congress hopes to inspire our government leaders, LGUs, coffee players and future coffee farmers to think about Robusta. You can plant more per hectare, it is more resilient and climate change- ready, and you can even intercrop it with coconut, banana, pineapple, papaya and vegetables. In fact, the Philippine Coffee Board has already started pilot demo farms for different models with Robusta and Liberica such as: with coconut, with papaya and soon with ginger and other root crops, too.
The Coffee Congress will also feature our government representatives like Dept. of Agriculture’s High Value Crops Undersecretary Ching Caballero, Dept of Trade and Industry’s Assistant Secretary Grace Baluyan and the keynote speaker is no less than Senator Kiko Pangilinan, who is chair of the Committee on Agriculture. I am sure they will meet Nishant Gurjer and probably we can benchmark practices by visiting India, the world’s top producer of quality Robusta.
We will not skip mentioning the other varieties. In fact, at the end of the congress, we have set up three cupping stations for Robusta, Liberica and Arabica so our coffee experts can guide consumers, coffee producers on what Indian Robusta tastes like compared to ours. We will also be able to compare our Liberica vs India’s and Arabicas will also be from Asian origins vs our own Benguet and Bukidnon.
Coffee producers must be around to take this rare opportunity to listen to coffee gurus—we have Dave Lim of Asean Coffee Institute who will explain the Flavor Sphere, a chart that is truly Asian and describes coffee tastes using tropical fruits known to our farmers. Have you ever used balimbing or durian to describe coffee taste? Well, this might be the opportunity to get to know other flavors, especially local or Asian flavors.
The Congress is designed to engage other coffee players and encourage networking to get to know people from across the country who are in the same mission of growing more coffee. Of planting more trees and of teaching more young farmers to get into the farming of their favorite beverage. It is a short or small window of opportunity for the younger set who so love coffee to get into planting. In a few years, they will start families and shift priorities. While they are young and into coffee, they can go the whole nine yards and plant coffee, too.
We will also recognize the people who have been helping reforest with coffee like GCash/GForest, the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, The Philippine Coconut Authority the Isabela City of Basilan, and even our major sponsor Land Bank who will also be planting coffee trees soon.
We have been drinking a lot of Robusta, we just don’t know it. So it is high time we gave it more attention and really focus on making our little production higher in quality and value. Right now, some Robusta is being exported to the USA already because they have scored high in coffee quality competitions. We can definitely be the unique source of heirloom Robusta as we have found many in the hinterlands of Sulu and Cotabato. The taste is uniquely pleasant and the old trees need to just be rejuvenated once we give it proper attention and care. In North Cotabato, for example, we found good coffee but they have allowed the trees to grow tall, now making us want to cut and rejuvenate these heirloom trees. But not to worry, coffee, like people, can get new life with rejuvenation and soon will fruit prolifically again.
We have tasted Sulu Robusta and are now planting the seeds for higher production of this tasty brew. These rare varieties will get new attention soon after this Sustainability Coffee Congress.
So, again, why Robusta? Because when life gives you Robusta, you brew a lot of Robusta. Check our FB and IG accounts or email phcoffeecongress@gmail.com to join the event.