MANILA – A Nestlé satellite coffee buying station was recently opened in Diffun, Quirino province in North Luzon to enable producers in the area to sell their green coffee beans with greater convenience consistent with prevailing world market price.
Nestlé coffee buying stations in the country are all located strategically in coffee producing areas to enable growers to sell green coffee beans directly to the company as part of its NESCAFÉ Plan, named after the world’s leading coffee brand.
As a global, long-term Nestlé program for Creating Shared Value (CSV), the NESCAFÉ Plan aims to help coffee farmers improve their livelihood by:
– promoting better farming practices to increase yields and farmer income;
– providing training to farmers for free;
– helping to sustain coffee bean standards;
– setting up satellite buying stations near production areas; and
– propagating and selling at cost high-quality plantlets to the private sector and the government for distribution to farmers nationwide.
The NESCAFÉ Plan is an expression of the Nestlé Purpose, that of enhancing quality of life and contributing to a healthier future. Guided by the Nestlé Purpose, the company helps develop thriving and resilient communities and support better livelihoods for those whom it lives and works with.
By Nestlé’s count, there are some 34,000 smallholder coffee farmers in the country at present. Local annual output of green coffee beans is estimated at 23,000 metric tons, with annual requirements estimated at 64,000 metric tons. The shortfall in requirements is filled by imports. One of the goals of the NESCAFÉ Plan is to close this shortfall.
The average age of a Filipino coffee farmer is 57 years old, with an average land size ownership of 1.0 to 1.5 hectares and an average daily income from a one-hectare coffee farm of P168.00 (average of gains from year 4 to year 10 of production divided by 365 calendar days).
The first sale to the Quirino buying station was made by the Diffun Saranay and Development Cooperative (DISADECO). Under Nestlé’s direct procurement system, a receiving report, effectively a check payment, is turned over to the seller at the time of the transaction and can be encashed in a bank at or near the buying station site.
Current prices of green coffee beans are Php 107 (Grade 1), Php 105 (Grade 2) and Php 99 (Grade 3). Suppliers can opt to wait for higher prices before selling their produce in order to realize higher gains.
The buying station is a component of the Quirino Integrated Coffee Center (QICC), established by Nestlé Philippines within a Department of Agriculture facility to supply the needed coffee planting materials of North Luzon. QICC production capacity is 300,000-500,000 plantlets per year.
