Agri dep’t earmarks P2.B for coffee roads
The Department of Agriculture (DA) is investing P2.5 billion this year to bolster the Philippines’ coffee industry with the development of a farm-to-market road network in Sultan Kudarat.
The DA said the project will provide access to 29,000 hectares (ha) of land. It noted that limited access to remote agricultural areas, in particular, has hampered large-scale crop development in parts of Mindanao.
In a statement over the weekend, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the agency hopes to develop the project “to increase domestic coffee production.”
Agriculture Undersecretary Jerome Oliveros said that Sultan Kudarat is one of the provinces in Mindanao that the DA identified to help drive self-sufficiency in coffee.
Oliveros said other areas, including Bukidnon, Davao del Sur and Agusan del Sur, will be incorporated into the planned Mindanao Special Reserve Areas for Coffee Industry Development.
“We need to develop an additional 100,000 hectares to achieve self-sufficiency in coffee,” he added. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that the production of green coffee beans stood at 13,000 metric tons in the first quarter of 2026, down 0.4 percent from the same period a year ago.
Tiu Laurel said there is room to double coffee yields through better inputs, technology and farm access.
The DA noted that the demand continues to surge, now estimated at 3.78 kilograms (kg) per person—one of the highest in Asia—“driven by a rapidly expanding café culture and rising consumption.”
However, a previous report of the US Department of Agriculture projected coffee imports to increase almost 10 percent to around 378,000 metric tons, sourced mainly from Vietnam and Indonesia.
The DA also said the income potential is “significant” as beans are now selling at around P300 per kg. Citing production models used by Nestlé, farmers could earn at least P300,000 per harvest even at a modest yield of one ton per ha.
“At current prices, a hectare planted to coffee can generate roughly 30 percent more income than a similarly sized rice field harvested twice a year—underscoring its appeal as a diversification crop for farmers,” it added.
