Nestlé opens new coffee centre in Philippines

Swiss food giant Nestlé has opened a new coffee centre of excellence in Batangas City, Philippines, as part of its efforts to improve the quality and quantity of the coffee crop in the country.

The facility, which was established as a one-stop shop for coffee-growers in the region, will provide farmers with access to the best of Nestlé’s coffee farming technology and training.

Nestlé Philippines senior vice president and corporate affairs head Edith de Leon said: "This is a significant milestone which underlines our continuing support of the Philippine coffee industry and our commitment to creating shared value for its various stakeholders, especially small-scale coffee farmers."

Nestlé Philippines is the largest buyer of Robusta coffee beans in the country and the new centre will secure the long-term supply of the crop.

Nestlé noted that the demand for coffee beans in the Philippines is not being addressed by locally-grown supply – in 2012, the local demand for coffee beans totalled more than 70,000t, while local production reached only 30,000t.

The five-hectare facility, which was established with an investment of CHF500,000 ($537,322), features a Robusta production nursery with the capacity to produce about 500,000 coffee seedlings, which will be distributed to growers at cost price.

Nestlé aims to make the centre a major source of coffee seedlings throughout the country with the capacity for as many as one million seedlings.

It is estimated that around 3,500 farmers will receive coffee seedlings from the centre by 2020.

The facility also features a buying station where farmers can sell their produce to Nestlé at a price in line with the global market, as well as a composting facility for organic fertiliser.

The Nestlé Lipa Integrated Coffee Center, which was unveiled in July, is the second of its kind in the country and it aims to help coffee farmers on the northern Luzon Island boost yields.

The Lipa coffee centre and the existing Nestlé Experimental and Demonstration Farm, in Davao del Norte, are part of the Nescafé Plan, a CHF350m ($376.1m) initiative supporting sustainable coffee farming, production and consumption, which was launched in 2010.

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Image: Nestlé plans to make the new coffee centre a major source of coffee seedlings across the country. Photo courtesy of Nestlé.