Dagop Coffee Roastery had its humble beginnings in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. It started from mere selling of cakes and pastries from Sagada, Mountain Province to re-selling honey harvested in Benguet. The coffee inclusion in the business started when Mr. Klifford Batawig’s explored potential market opportunities for his aunt’s green coffee beans from Atok.
Selling multiple products at a time was proven to be difficult for Klifford. Having too many things to memorize and consider in terms of storage and marketing is not an easy task for a starting entrepreneur.
Considering the salability of the products, he decided to stick with coffee products. From selling the green coffee beans from her aunt as is, he explored and worked on the idea of processing such green beans. Through hard work and investment, he learned how to roast green coffee beans for selling. This started the Dagop Coffee brand, which is one of the emerging home-grown and local coffee brands from the Cordilleras.
As a start-up, he sources quality green coffee beans of known farm origin and sells them as genuine single-origin coffee to cafes, coffee shops, and direct consumers. This new business model sells to 7 coffee shops/cafes, direct consumers, primarily in Baguio City to as far as Bohol.
Dagop Coffee Roastery aims to market and promote the coffee produced by the Cordillera coffee farmers—the brand sees this as an opportunity to let people around the world experience the taste of Cordilleran Coffee.
When asked what about the greatest challenge in running the brand, Klifford said that it is how to run a business since he is used to working as an employee in a corporate set-up—a challenge he was able to overcome through the help of the Department of Trade and Industry.
In June 2021, Klifford was able to join the DTI Youth Entrepreneurship Program or YEP, a series of modular sessions on entrepreneurship offered to the youth who are planning to start their own businesses or are managing their own businesses. Aside from these modular sessions on entrepreneurship, he was also a beneficiary of the Livelihood Seeding Program – Negosyo Serbisyo sa Barangay program, business consultancies, Intellectual Property and FDA-LTO registrations, and other product development activities. Other government programs and support were also provided. Through these, he was able to learn, develop, and improve his business management, operations, and products.
The YEP returns this month with its third run. The two earlier batches yielded 210 graduates from across the region. This year’s implementation includes Project MARITES under the Commission on Higher Education or CHED. Project MARITES or Mobilizing Available Resources through Inclusive Training on Entrepreneurship of Student-Grantees was conceptualized to equip the beneficiaries the adequate knowledge and skills in entrepreneurship which includes Entrepreneurial Mind-Setting, Marketing, Financial Management, Production Management, and Digitalization. which they can apply to their start-up and small-scale businesses. This year’s applicants will be evaluated to determine under strand, YEP, or Project MARITES, will they undergo for the next few weeks.
To date, Mr. Batawig is being mentored by Mr. Edgar Kawig of The Red Soil to be more knowledgeable and enthusiastic about coffee. As a member of the youth sector, he is expected to be a partner in encouraging young people to engage in the coffee business. ♦
Date of Release: 11 July 2022