Making money from coffee

Coffee Arabica is one of the most promoted products of Mountain Province. This favorite drink found special promotion in the Lang-ay Festival 2008 and the up-coming Lang-ay 2009.

For the 3,000 coffee Arabica farmers of the province, coffee growing means additional source of money for the family.

Coffee parchment costs P105 to P120 a ganta. A ganta weighs 2 and half kilos. A ganta of coffee green beans costs P200 per ganta. A kilo of roasted and ground coffee powder costs P300 per kilo. What more, a kilogram of in takkin di mutit costs P700 a kilo.

Coffee plants can be grown in backyards and in mountains in between pine trees. With the Mountain Province being a mountainous place with a suitable elevation and temperature for coffee growing, coffee production is a potential source of livelihood.

Coffee is also a very good source of income for coffee shop owners.

Sagada for one is a tourist town which has a high demand for coffee with hot steaming coffee costing P15- P25.00 per cup.

Nearby Bontoc which is equally a tourist and business center, and the capital town of the province hosting government offices, thrives with a number of coffee shops. There are at least 21 coffee shops within the heart of Poblacion Bontoc alone.

With one mug of coffee costing P6.00 to P10.00 and an average of at least 1,714 coffee mugs consumed in a day, a coffee shop owner makes money. The Department of Industry-Mountain Province survey shows at least 12,000 cups are drank in one week translated to at least P120,000 income in a week to nearly half a million pesos in a month.

Survey shows one coffee shop owner makes use of at least 2 kilograms of coffee powder in a day.

With one kilogram producing at least 144 cups, this is translated to at least P1,440.00 income with one cup costing P10.00 each.

At least 120 kilograms of roasted coffee per week is consumed adding to some 6,300 kilograms of roasted coffee per year, DTI says. This means P1.89 million income for coffee producers and P9 million for coffee shop owners in a year.

Yet, with Mountain Province people being a coffee drinking community along with its visitors, its coffee produce is not enough to fill local consumption. Coffee shop owners buy coffee powder and coffee beans from Kalinga, Benguet, Baguio, and Batangas.

One major aim of coffee farmers in the province is to produce at least enough supply for Mountain Province, Ligaya Poled, High Value Commodity Crops (HVCC) Coordinator for the provincial agriculture office said. This observation was noted among farmers during the Coffee Training and Fair held February 2007 and Coffee Summit held recently this January 2009 in Sagada.

While this is the case, coffee traders enticed by the aroma of Sagada Coffee, come from Baguio and Manila. Demand is high for coffee Arabica but supply is small.

Coffee products are currently sold as ground coffee, as green beans, and as parchment coffee. Sales generated P2.3 million in 2007 and P .307 million in the form of roasted coffee, DTI records say.

For more info about Coffee Arabica in Mountain Province, read more of it in

Northern Philippine Times