Notes

THE PHILIPPINE COFFEE INDUSTRY
Just like its flavor, Philippine
coffee has a rich history. The first
coffee tree was introduced in Lipa,
Batangas in 1740 by a Spanish
Franciscan monk. From there,
coffee growing spread to other
parts of Batangas, allowing the
province to grow in wealth over
the decades. Lipa eventually
became the coffee capital of the
Philippines.
In the 1860s, Batangas was
already selling coffee to America, through San Francisco, and subsequently, with
the opening of the Suez Canal, the Europe market opened. By 1880, the
Philippines had become the fourth largest exporter of coffee beans, and when the
coffee rust hit Brazil, Africa, and Java, it became the only source of coffee beans
worldwide.
Unfortunately, by the end of the decade, the coffee rust eventually reached the
Philippine shores, destroying all the coffee trees in Batangas. The Philippine coffee
industry experienced ups and downs thereafter and never recovered its glory
days.1
However, all is not lost for the Philippine coffee industry. Coffee is grown in 50
countries along the equatorial zone called, “The Bean Belt”. Interestingly, the
Philippines lies within the Bean Belt. Blessed with favorable climate and soil
conditions, from the lowland to the mountain regions, the Philippines is also one
of the few countries that produces the four varieties of commercially-viable coffee -
Liberica, Excelsa, Robusta and Arabica