Globalization, liberalization worse than blight.

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
 | January 10, 2003 | Copyright
(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Byline: Mei Magsino
(Second of a series)
LIPA CITY-As the glory days were enjoyed at overstated levels, quarantine practices meant to protect the local coffee industry lagged. People, products and even diseases reached the country.
After about 150 years of getting rich over the world's addiction to caffeine, the coffee industry was hit by blight.
Known as coffee rust, or "bagombong", the virus wiped out many of Lipa's coffee trees. Until now, its origin is still unknown.
When the coffee industry recovered after World War II, the Philippines again became one of the world's top coffee producers. Since 1992, however, coffee production gradually fell, as coffee growers started replacing their coffee trees with higher value crops such as pineapple and mango.
Jose Mercado, chair of the Merlo Agricultural Corp., said globalization and the entry of imported coffeethat competed with local beans forced coffee farmers to stop propagating coffee. Imported coffee from the world's top coffee exporters, such as Brazil, Vietnam and Indonesia, were sold at lower prices.
Slowly, the coffee trees were cut down.
Worse than blight
For coffee farmers, globalization seemed to be worse than the coffee rust that almost wiped out their industry.
For former Army Col. Nicetas Katigbak, who owns a 30-hectare coffee farm, the biggest in the city, reviving the Barako coffee is not practical for now. In his coffee plantation, the biggest in Lipa City, he has no Barako tree either. What he has is the Robusta variety, the coffee bean much smaller than Barako. He supplies coffee to the Nestle factory in the city, which manufactures the instant coffeeNescafe.
Falling prices
But Katigbak is not even happy with the way the price of coffee is going.
"During the time when the price of coffee was still high, that was 1985 to 1986, I thought planting coffeewould be profitable," Katigbak said, "So I started planting coffee in 1986. But then the price went down, and I decided to switch into mangoes."
In Katigbak's farm, coffee trees grow in-between mangoes.
Not practical
"I used to have about 35,000 Robusta and Exelsa coffee trees, but now there are only 20,000 left as I have cut most of the trees," Katigbak said, "It's not practical anymore to invest in the coffee business."
He said the reason he planted coffee was to revive the Robusta coffee industry.
"But when it comes to the Barako, I wasn't able to get any Barako coffee here in Lipa. That's why I have only Robusta and Exelsa in my farm," Katigbak said.
Katigbak's farm used to have a garden that cloned Robusta Coffee.
He said there used to be a group of coffee traders from Makati, and some coffee processors who initiated a move to propagate the Barako coffee in 2000, but they did not push through after Edsa 2.
No continuity
"Two years ago, the Department of Agriculture started a program to revive the coffee industry. Coffeeseedlings were given out to farmers, but when the new administration took over, the project also stopped. That's the problem. There was no continuity of the program. Up to now, there is still no effort from the government to revive the coffee industry," Katigbak lamented. But he said he also sees the need to bring back the Barako.
"I'd love to plant Barako coffee. The problem now is that there is no more material for that variety," Katigbak said, "I used to be in the business of cloning Robusta in my clonal garden. Maybe I could do that with Barako."
Katigbak, who belongs to the coffee-trading families of Lipa City, recognized the ills that affected thecoffee planters.
"When globalization set in, our local coffee was beaten up by the imported coffee, which is much better in quality and much cheaper," he said, "And do you know why the imported coffee has better quality and is much cheaper? That's because the farmers in other countries who grow coffee are getting government support. Ours don't. For the coffee growers, who would dare propagate Barako when there is no government support?" (To be continued)