DA Project Transforms Coffee Farmers to Manufacturers

Buenas Coffee products

Coffee remains the staple drink of Filipinos and its demand continues to expand.

According to Philippine Coffee Board, Filipinos can consume 100,000 metric tons of coffee a year. Hence, various companies established their coffee products in the Philippines to grab the huge market opportunities.

But did you know that coffee farmers themselves in Simbalan, a mountainous barangay in Buenavista, Agusan del Norte planted and manufactured their own line of coffee products bringing the brand name as Buenas Coffee. The group is called Simbalan Rubber Farmers Association Incorporated (SBFAI) with 37 strong members.

According to Lucia Morden business manager of the association, Buenas Coffee would not have been born without the support from the Department of Agriculture Caraga through the Support to Emergency and Livelihood Assistance Program (SELAP) Phase II.

“We are so grateful to DA because Buenas Coffee would have not been conceived if not with the funding support of SELAP,” Morden said.

In 2012, the Simbalan Rubber Farmers Association Incorporated availed the P300,000.00 livelihood assistance from SELAP Phase II with P34,000.00 counterpart from Buenavista LGU which was used to purchased coffee de huller and coffee roaster.

Morden said that Buenas Coffee with its humble beginning is now slowly gaining popularity among coffee lovers in the locality.

“To ensure freshness of our coffee, we process on an order basis, most of our bulk of orders are coming from government offices and satisfied individuals,” Morden said. With the increasing popularity and demand, some of its products were also featured in various trade fairs in Caraga.

Buenas Coffee is in soluble form in various packaging; with its aesthetic and aroma no doubt it can compete with commercial brands.

SBFAI can process an average of 20 kilos of coffee in a month. The raw coffee to be processed where purchased from its member beneficiaries.  Barangay Simbalan has 77.75 hectares planted with coffee comprising 98 farmers based on data from the Municipal Agriculture Office of Buenavista.

Morden said that aside from funding support from SELAP, they also availed coffee planting materials from the High Value Crops Development Program (HVCDP) of DA Caraga.

With good track record in implementing SELAP project, other national line agencies lined up to support the association thus expanding the business line of SBFAI such as grocery store, agri- supplies, agro-forestry planting materials and more.

As their brand name Buenas which means lucky, Morden said that indeed DA-SELAP Phase II brings luck to their association.  (Aurelius P. Arais/DA Caraga)

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