Local coffee brand pushed

CEBU, Philippines — Homegrown coffee shop chain Coffee Dream plans to tap the hospitality sector to promote Cebu’s own coffee brand “Kape Arcadio” in order to boost the local coffee farming community of Tuburan.

“We are promoting our Kape Arcadio and we are planning to tie-up with the different restaurants, resorts and hotels so that they can serve coffee from Cebu,” said Coffee Dream president Glenn O. Soco in an interview yesterday.

Promoting the Kape Arcadio story to tourists and coffee drinkers alike is important in order to make the locally-produced coffee brand more interesting to the market.

“They can [also] sell the story to their customers,” Soco added.

Coffee Dream is one of the major bulk buyers of Tuburan-grown coffee, and it intends to encourage farmers to plant more, thereby improving their source of income.

Coffee Dream has close to 50 coffee shop outlets nationwide.

Kape Arcadio is a blend made of the coffee produced from Tuburan coffee farm in the north-eastern part of Cebu.

The brand is a tribute to one of the most hailed heroes in Cebu’s history—General Arcadio Maxilom, a native of Tuburan.

Maxilom was the first Cebuano governor who bravely fought for the independence of Cebu from foreign occupation in 1800.

His heroic legacy is honored through the introduction of Kape Arcadio blend.

Grown in the highland of Cebu, the coffee plantation covers 2,850 hectares of land that runs across 16 villages.

"Our consumption of our Tuburan beans is increasing as it is also creating awareness.  We started offering it as a promotional blend and our customers liked it, it tastes good," said

Soco adding that in the next few months, hotels, resorts and restaurants in Cebu will have an opportunity to promote Cebuano heritage, as well as helping the farmers improve their livelihood.

The coffee farm, managed by Kafamco (Kabangkalan Agro Forestry Farmers Association Multipurpose Cooperative ), aims not only to give livelihood of the over a thousand farmers from coffee farming, but also taking advantage of the eco-tourism niche of Tuburan.

The farm alone has the capacity to produce P4.3 million kilos of beans a year. If this is roasted and sold at prevailing P600 per kilo, it has a potential to earn over P2 billion annually.