KORONADAL CITY – The Department of Trade and Industry Region 12 (DTI-12) thru its Sultan Kudarat Provincial Office spearheaded a Coffee Bean Grading and Cupping Session to appraise the quality of coffee produced by farmers in Sultan Kudarat.
A total of 27 coffee bean samples from individual farmers, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and farmer groups were evaluated on 22-24 March by resident Q Graders, professionals who are credentialed by the Coffee Quality Institute to grade and score coffees.
The goal of the activity is to assess the quality of the coffee beans and help farmers especially in the province of Sultan Kudarat to improve quality through recommendations and feedbacks on production and processing practices.
Simultaneously, the activity is a dry run of the process flow and procedures for the operationalization of DTI’s Shared Service Facility (SSF) on Coffee Cupping Laboratory and Barista Training Center at Sultan Kudarat State University (SKSU).
The team of Q Graders is composed of Emilyn Sabado of ACDI/VOCA together with the in-house Q Graders of DTI-12, Leslie Aranillas and Joven Quiriones, and MSME-Q Graders, Ava Odal, Dave Fredeluces, Francis Fredeluces & Arnel Cadeliña.
The activity was made under the Rural Agro-Enterprise Partnership for Inclusive Development and Growth (RAPID Growth) project of DTI in collaboration with the SKSU and ACDI/VOCA – a non-government organization (NGO) whose advocacy is to help farmers increase coffee productivity and quality.
“Through the use of our SSF on Coffee Cupping Laboratory and Barista Training Center, we are assisting farmers by giving recommendations on how to improve the quality of their coffee harvest. Higher quality coffee means higher selling price,” said Jude Constantine S. Jaugan, Regional Director of DTI-12.
Jaugan added, “We extend our gratitude to SKSU and ACDI/VOCA for the partnership that will ensure more impactful interventions across the coffee value-chain of Region 12. We invite the coffee farmers to have their coffee be assessed by our resident Q Graders.”
Region 12 is the top producing coffee region in the Philippines contributing about 23% in domestic production with Sultan Kudarat as the major coffee-producing region. ♦
Date of Release: 30 March 2021