TACURONG CITY (MindaNews / 02 November) - Nestle Philippines, Inc. has assured continued market support for coffee produced in Mindanao, which provides the bulk of domestic coffee beans processed by the multinational food and beverage manufacturer.
Mauricio Alarcon, Nestle Philippines chair and CEO, said the company is not just looking at Sultan Kudarat, the country's top coffee producer, as its major supplier in Mindanao.
"I don't want to limit this to Sultan Kudarat...In terms of our commitment to Mindanao, it is a complete commitment," he said, citing its existing manufacturing plant in Cagayan de Oro City, agricultural training support, and the buying stations the company set up in parts of the island.
Apart from providing the market for coffee farmers, Alarcon noted that Nestle wants to help develop a circular economy not just in Mindanao but the Philippines as a whole, referring to other industries benefiting from their operations such as the suppliers of machineries, warehousing, packaging and transport.
Alarcon and other Nestle Philippine executives came to this city last Thursday, October 30, for the culmination of Project Coffee++, a capacity-building initiative jointly conducted with the German International Agency for Cooperation (GIZ).
Hundreds of coffee farmers from Sultan Kudarat and Bukidnon provinces graced the occasion.
Under Project Coffee++, Nestle Philippines serves as the buyer. It was piloted as Project Coffee+ in 2018. Some 3,000 coffee farmers from the two provinces benefited from the coffee project.
"We're extremely proud of what we're doing. Because all of this is not only to develop the coffee market, but to be able to buy Filipino coffee," Alarcon said.
He said Nestle purchased 9,000 tons of local coffee this season, with 80 percent supplied by Sultan Kudarat.
Jose Uy, Nestle Philippines corporate affairs head, said they envision opening new buying stations in other parts of Mindanao provided there is sufficient coffee supply.
"Production is the key," he said during the press conference.
Currently, Nestle operates buying stations in its manufacturing plant in Cagayan de Oro, in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat and Valencia City in Bukidnon, Uy said.
He said Nestle currently buys coffee beans at P275 per kilo.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, seven of the Top 10 coffee-producing provinces in the country are in Mindanao.
Based on data released in September last year, Sultan Kudarat was the top coffee producer in the country with a volume of 21,442 metric tons (MT), followed by Bukidnon with 9,042 MT, Cavite with 8,190 MT, Davao del Sur with 7,713 MT and Iloilo with 5,736 MT.
Davao de Oro's coffee production was at 4,346 MT, Maguindanao with 4,269 MT, Batangas with 3,658 MT, Sulu with 3,563 MT, and Basilan with 3,222 MT. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)