8 coops get P3-M to boost Mt Province coffee business

By MB Zabala

BONTOC, Mountain Province – This province’s coffee enterprise got a boost from government and is set to operate in full swing.

“We are excited to start the coffee green beans consolidation business,” said Lilian Biswilan, manager of Besao Multi-purpose Cooperative (BMPC) following the turnover of various machineries and equipment for the Mountain Province Arabica Coffee Enterprise from the Department of Agriculture Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) in Mountain Province on Jan. 24 here in Barangay Caluttit.

Biswilan said members will be more enthusiastic in expanding their coffee plantations now that equipment needed to start their coffee business were handed to them by the provincial government.

The DA-PRDP, national and provincial governments and proponent group jointly funded the P13.6 million worth of capital to run the Mountain Province Arabica Coffee Enterprise, 60% of which is sourced from loan proceeds from the World Bank, 20% from the National Government, 20% from the Local Government of Mountain Province, and also from the proponent group.

The cost for production equipment/machineries for the enterprise is worth P3 million.

Biswilan said the enterprise will focus on consolidating parchment coffee from eight member- cooperatives at the BMPC as the lead proponent of the enterprise which shall process the parchment into quality green beans as end product to be sold to processors.

More than five thousand members of the eight cooperatives shall benefit from the project, she added.

The enterprise is a new green coffee beans production trading of the eight cooperatives from different municipalities in Mountain Province who wants to unify the marketing system of coffee to benefit coffee growers and traders from the province.

Recipient cooperatives are composed of the following:  Besao Multi-purpose Cooperative (MPC) as lead proponent; Tadian MPC; Sagada MPC; Sagada Community Consumers Cooperative; Dandang-ay di Ibila MPC; Maggon Rural Improvement Club; Bagnen-Balintaugan Timpoyog Cooperative; and the St. Barnabas Credit Cooperative.

During the turn-over ceremony, beneficiaries were lauded for their expressed intent to expand their coffee production areas to ensure sustainability and assurance of reaching the projected 5% increase in income.

"We are glad that your coffee business plan is aligned with the Coffee Development Plan for the Cordillera Administrative Region which encourages farmer groups engaged in the coffee enterprise to focus on the following strategies: increase productivity, expansion of production areas, increase profit and improve quality of coffee," said Dr. Cameron P. Odsey, Regional Executive Director of DA-CAR and project director of DA-PRDP Regional Project Coordination Office in Cordillera.

The DA-PRDP handed over postharvest equipment such as depulpers, moisture meters, weighing scales and jute sacks, de-hauling machines, sorting tables, sorting screens, bag sewers for the consolidation center. The satellite buying centers for consolidation and storage facility as well as the vehicle to be used to haul and transport their coffee products are yet to be handed over at a later time.

"Coffee is the reason why they were given these implements," said John Likigan, Provincial Agriculturist of Mountain Province.  "It is high time that we focus on increasing our coffee production because we really want to see to it that the lives of marginal coffee farmers in our province will significantly increase knowing that this project is ready to begin the course of its business," he added.

In Mountain Province, the DA-PRDP has invested P137 million to support 50 approved enterprise subprojects plus P2.6 billion worth of infrastructure subprojects.

The DA-PRDP is a six-yead development project designed to establishe the government platform for a modern, climate-smart and market-oriented agri-fishery sector.  PRDP partners with the LGUS and the private sector in providing key infrastructure, facilities, technology, and information that will raise incomes, productivity and competitiveness in the countryside.