Figaro in race to save the Barako.

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
 | January 13, 2003 | Copyright
(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Byline: Mei Magsino, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau
(Last of a series)
IN 2000, Barako became the focus of Figaro Foundation Corp.'s efforts. As a result, the then nearly extinct Barako has become a staple in many local coffee shops and restaurants, as well as Filipino homes.
"With the help of Dr. Andy Mojica of the Cavite State University, we at the coffee task force searched for the Barako tree all over the country and determined if it was really the Barako," Figaro director Chit Juan said.
The Barako farm in Barangay Dagatan at the coffee town of Amadeo in Cavite-Figaro Foundation's pilot farm-has 2,000 Barako trees planted and tended to by the resident farmers.
The Barako pilot farm is a two-hectare land owned by the family of Amadeo Mayor OJ Ambagan donated to Figaro to help revive the coffee industry.
"Barako was chosen for this project to save it from extinction, and also because it fetches a higher market price than Robusta--the variety most commonly grown in Cavite," Juan said. "The latest price on Robusta coffee is P45 per kilo. With Barako, it's doubled to P90. It's worth the effort."
"Coffee is one of our town's biggest sources of income," Ambagan said, "and it is our duty to help develop that. We now have the Pahimis (thanksgiving) festival, which is also called the Coffee Festival, in February to further boost the coffee industry.
The national average yield of coffee is only 500 kilograms (half a ton) a hectare or two kilograms of green beans per tree every harvest.
Since coffee is harvested once a year, that is also the figure per year.
In Cavite, however, where programs have been implemented to boost production, the average coffee tree now yields three tons a hectare or six times the national average.
That means a boost to the production of up to 12 kilograms a tree, and a whopping 1,200 cups of brewed coffee from a single tree in a single harvest.
The project is envisioned to increase the income of coffee farmers from P15,000 per hectare per harvest to as high as P85,000 per hectare per harvest.
Involved in the project to revive the Barako are Juan, Ambagan, Amadeo councilor Rene Tongson, Andy Mojica, National Coffee Task Force team leader.
According to Juan, the foundation was supposed to start a program to revive the Barako in Lipa City in 2000.
"But the problem with Lipa is that there is no cooperator in the local level who, like Mayor Ambagan, would donate a land for us to plant the Barako and provide support to maintain the farm," she said.
The Leisure Farms in Tagaytay City has also devoted one hectare for the foundation's drive to revive the Barako. It now has the irrigated Barako farm where a thousand Barako trees have been planted.
Figaro Foundation is constantly in search of good ideas and opportunities to save both Barako and the local coffee industry.
"The program is to plant Barako to about 22,000 hectares of farm in five years all over the Philippines. We need to plant 100,000 Barako trees within the next five years for it to survive," Juan said. "We have already planted at least 4,000 hectares in Cavite and have identified another 4,000 hectares in Mindanao."
Juan said the Figaro Coffee Co. has also launched a program in its every cafe to help in the drive to revive the Barako.
"For every pack of Figaro coffee that you buy, P10 goes to the foundation to revive the Barako," she said.
For Juan, Lipa City might have lost its title as the coffee capital of the Philippines, but the fate of the Barako does not stop there.