DTI Apayao Trained 16 Kabugao Coffee Farmers in Bean Grading to Close the Gap Between Farm Quality and Market Price

On April 15 and 16, 2026, DTI Apayao through Negosyo Center Kabugao, in partnership with the Provincial Office on Agricultural Services and the Local Government Unit of Kabugao, ran a two-day Coffee Grading Training in Poblacion, Kabugao for 16 coffee farmers from the barangays of Baliwanan, Madatag, Dibagat, Poblacion, and Kumao. The session was led by Mr. Jefrey A. Bartolome, a Certified Cupper and Coffee Value Assessor from POAS, covering hands-on green coffee bean sorting and grading based on size, defect identification, and industry quality standards.

The training is a direct response to a gap that has held Apayao coffee back for years: the province grows good beans, but without grading skills and quality systems at the farm level, those beans cannot consistently access the buyers who pay for them.

The Gap This Training Is Closing

Apayao coffee, grown in the cool highlands of municipalities like Kabugao, produces Arabica and Robusta with flavor profiles described as smooth, with notes of chocolate and nuts, attributes that specialty coffee buyers in Manila, Japan, South Korea, and China actively seek. The province's total coffee production stood at 271.28 metric tons from 845.74 acres as of the last published benchmark, with an average yield of 0.32 metric tons per hectare, well below the national average of 1 to 1.5 metric tons per hectare.

That yield gap is partly agronomic. But the value gap, the difference between what Apayao coffee earns and what it could earn as a graded, traceable specialty product, is almost entirely a post-harvest and quality systems problem. Green coffee bean sorting and defect grading is the first technical step in closing it. A farmer who can identify and remove defective beans before sale is a farmer whose product scores higher at cupping, commands a better price, and starts building a reputation for consistency with buyers.

What Apayao Has Been Building

The April training is not an isolated initiative. It is part of a deliberate, multi-agency push to position Apayao coffee as a premium regional product. In January 2026, DTI Apayao and PLGU Apayao launched the 2026 Search for Best Apayao Coffee. In February 2026, the first Apayao Coffee Quality Competition concluded at the Apayao Agro-Industrial Trade and Tourism Fair, with results highlighting the product's potential as a high-value agricultural export. In March 2026, the Apayao Coffee Council held its Q1 meeting and farm visits to align government and private sector stakeholders on the province's coffee development agenda.

The grading training is the farm-level infrastructure that makes all of that market-building work credible. A competition and a council mean nothing if the beans arriving at the buyer cannot be reliably sorted and assessed.

What This Means for Northern Luzon

Apayao is building a specialty coffee identity at the exact moment the Philippine coffee market is accelerating. The Philippines coffee market is projected to grow at 7.20% CAGR between 2026 and 2035, driven by rising domestic consumption and a growing specialty segment. The global coffee market is on track to reach USD 155.64 billion by 2025, with Asia-Pacific specialty demand among the fastest-growing segments globally. Benguet is already recognized nationally for highland Arabica. Apayao has the same geographic and climate advantage. The difference is that Apayao's coffee value chain is still being built in real time, and these 16 farmers in Kabugao are part of that foundation.

For DTI-CAR, DOST-CAR, and other Northern Luzon agriculture and trade agencies, Apayao's multi-agency coffee development model, connecting Negosyo Centers, POAS, LGU agricultural offices, and the Apayao Coffee Council under a shared quality and market agenda, is a template worth documenting and replicating in other high-potential crop corridors across the region.

Coffee farmers in Kabugao and neighboring municipalities interested in the next training or the Apayao Coffee Council's programmes can reach DTI Apayao through the Negosyo Center Kabugao directly.

Original Source:

This article is based on an official post by DTI Apayao, published April 16, 2026. We are grateful for the original documentation that brought this story to light.

Market Context:

The Philippines coffee market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.20% between 2026 and 2035, driven by rising café culture, expanding domestic consumption, and growing international demand for Philippine specialty varieties including Liberica, Arabica, and Excelsa. Apayao's total coffee production stands at 271.28 metric tons from 845.74 acres, with an average yield of 0.32 metric tons per hectare, significantly below the national average of 1 to 1.5 metric tons per hectare, creating a clear agronomic and post-harvest improvement opportunity. The global coffee market is on track to reach USD 155.64 billion by 2025, with Asia-Pacific specialty buyers in Japan, South Korea, and China representing the highest-value export opportunity for Philippine highland Arabica producers. Apayao's cool highland climate and fertile soils produce beans with flavor profiles, smooth, with chocolate and nut notes, that align directly with specialty market preferences.