The history of coffee in the Philippines is another tale of the product going from being a bedrock of the economy to almost disappearing completely. The most common version of the story starts in 1740, when coffee was first planted by a Spanish monk in Lipa, in Batangas province. It flourished under Spanish colonial rule and spread around the Philippines.
In 1828, as part of an effort to foster cultivation, the Spanish offered a prize to anyone who would plant and ripen sixty thousand square feet of coffee (equivalent to 6,000 coffee trees). One farmer transformed his property in Jala Jala, in the province of Rizal, into a fertile plantation and won the prize of a thousand pesos. His success encouraged others to follow suit and increased the cultivation of coffee.
By the 1860s the Philippines were doing a healthy trade in coffee exports, with a large market being the United States through the gateway of San Francisco. The completion of the Suez Canal in 1869 opened up Europe as a potential market too. By the 1880s the Philippines was the fourth largest producer in the world, but in 1889 it would finally succumb to the leaf rust that had plagued so many other countries.
A combination of leaf rust and insects took a particularly heavy toll in the Batangas region – still the dominant producing region – and two years later production was less than twenty per cent of what it had been. Some seedlings were transplanted north to Cavite, where they appeared to flourish. However, most farmers moved away from coffee to other crops and for at least fifty years the industry was relatively dormant.
In the 1950s the government attempted to resurrect the coffee industry. With assistance from the US, it brought in disease-resistant varieties and Robusta as part of a five-year strategic plan. It was reasonably successful and production increased, but it wouldn’t be until 1962 or 1963 that the level was considered self-sufficient and coffee was no longer imported for local consumption. Part of the local demand came from the production of instant coffee in factories around the Philippines.
Coffee production has, in many ways, mirrored world prices and there has been an ebb and flow in production according to whether there has been sufficient demand. The frost in Brazil in 1975 briefly gave the Philippines the chance to be an exporting country again.
Production is currently up once more, in comparison with recent years. Programs remain in place to encourage production, though domestic consumption remains strong enough to mean that very little coffee is exported from the Philippines. As so little coffee is exported, and so much of what is produced is Robusta, it is unlikely that any excellent coffees will be available in the immediate future.
However, the country does grow two other species of coffee, not commonly found elsewhere: Coffea liberica and Coffea excelsa. While neither is anything to get excited about from a taste perspective, they are undeniably interesting to try, should the opportunity present itself.
A coffee shop in a village in the Philippines. Until the early 1960s, the Philippines did not grow enough coffee to meet domestic demand and the country currently exports very little coffee.
TRACEABILITY
Coffee comes from a mixture of cooperatives, estates and smallholder producers. The better coffees from the Philippines are usually more traceable, though very rare.
TASTE PROFILE
Great coffee from the Philippines is a rarity, but better lots are quite full-bodied, with low acidity and with light florals or fruity qualities.
GROWING REGIONS
Population: 100,982,000
Number of 60kg (132lb) bags in 2016: 200,000
The Philippines is made up of 7,641 islands. As such, growing regions are often collections of islands or groups of territories, rather than distinct topographical areas such as mountain ranges.
CORDILLERA ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
A mountainous region in northern Luzon which includes the Mountain Province, Benguet, Kalinga, Ifugao and Abra, the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) is the only landlocked region in the country. This is the highest growing area in the Philippines, though Robusta is grown at lower altitudes around northern Luzon.
| Altitude: | 1,000–1,800m (3,280–5,900ft) |
| Harvest: | October–March |
| Varieties: | Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Typica, Mondo Novo, Caturra |
CALABARZON
This administrative region is mostly lowlands, growing coffee species other than Arabica, around Manilla and to the south and east.
| Altitude: | 300–500m (980–1,640ft) |
| Harvest: | October–March |
| Varieties: | Robusta, Excelsa, Liberica |
MIMAROPA
This region is a collection of islands in the southwest which make up the four provinces of Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan. While the mountainous areas reach high altitudes, coffee is mostly grown lower down.
| Altitude: | 300–500m (980–1,640ft) |
| Harvest: | October–March |
| Varieties: | Robusta, Excelsa |
VISAYAS
Another group of islands, including Bohol which is famous for its unusual small rolling mountains called the Chocolate Hills. The Negros islands’ volcanic soil is well suited to coffee cultivation, but lacks the altitude for better-tasting coffee.
| Altitude: | 500–1000m (1,640–3,280ft) |
| Harvest: | October–March |
| Varieties: | Catimor, Robusta |
MINDANAO
The southernmost coffee-growing region in the Philippines is its most productive. Nearly 70 per cent of coffee trees in the Philippines are planted in this region.
| Altitude: | 700–1,200m (2,300–3,940ft) |
| Harvest: | October–March |
| Varieties: | Mysore, Typica, SV-2006, Catimor, Robusta, Excelsa |
A farmer dries coffee cherries in the town of Amadeo in the Calabarzon region. The Philippines is taking tentative steps toward regaining its status as a global trader of coffee beans.