DAVAO CITY—Philippine coffee entries to the recently concluded Philippine Coffee Quality Competition (PCQC) 2021 impressed the international judges, with the country’s Arabica entries getting the accolade of being one of the world’s “best washed coffees.”
The outstanding impressions Philippine coffee entries have elicited from the international judges generated strong sales in the online auction held at the side of the competition.
In his final report as one of the international judges, Krude Che-Hao Lin, founder of Taiwan Coffee Laboratory, said that some of the winning specialty Arabica coffee entries of PCQC 2021 “could rival the best washed coffees” that he has ever tasted, according to the Washington, DC-based international development organization ACDI/VOCA.
“Tremendous insight and efforts were clearly put into the coffee’s cultivation, harvest, and processing,” the ACDI/VOCA said in a news statement sent to the BusinessMirror, quoting Lin as saying.
The judge, likewise, was impressed with the improvement in quality of the other widely grown Robusta coffee from the Philippines. Lin said the fine Robusta coffee entries from the Philippines were “clean, sweet, and flavorful and came very close to their Arabica counterparts.”
“I believe this to be a crucial breakthrough in the world of coffee, as coffee growers are facing various challenges due to climate change,” he said.
He said the Philippine Robusta entries he cupped for the PCQC were exemplary, which he said, should improve the status of Robusta coffee. He said Robusta coffee “has been unfairly treated as second-class citizen in the world of specialty coffee.”
The ACDI/VOCA also quoted Shaun Ong of Better Coffee Co. in Singapore, head judge of this year’s competition, as saying that the entries “have shown that the quality of Philippine coffee is improving year after year.”
“I was blown away by this year’s entries. The top 3 Arabica winners are among the best in the Philippines, while the Robusta top 3 winners are the best that I have tasted as a judge in the last four years,” he said. Ong said the PCQC organizers “have done an outstanding job in the execution of the event which covered two local and three international venues.”
“The leadership and hard work of the technical working group, the organizers, administrators, roasters, judges, and volunteers should be celebrated as this was the first competition to be held long distance due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
The winning entries also notched a golden feather when it fetched all-time record-high prices during the online auction facilitated and hosted by the Philippine Coffee Guild in partnership with USDA’s PhilCAFE Project, the ACDI/VOCA added.
The entry of Marites Arellano of Balutakay, Davao del Sur, which won the top prize for the specialty Arabica category secured the highest bid price of $52.20 (P2,550) per kilogram. Meanwhile, Mabini Ubuan’s entry of Robusta coffee from Sigay, Ilocos Sur fetched the highest bid price of $18.00 (P879) per kilogram for Robusta entries.
All 22 Arabica and Robusta coffees, which totaled to 3,016 kilograms were sold during the auction with an aggregate value of $51,689.40 (P2,481,091). The auction successfully sold 1,478 kilograms of specialty Arabica, and 1,538 kilograms of fine Robusta. Of the 29 registered bidders, four were from outside the Philippines, and the rest were from across the country. Nine local roasters and three international buyers secured the winning entries during the auction proper.
TJ Ryan, director of the PhilCAFE project said the PCQC and the auction “provided not only the opportunity to improve the market price for the hardworking Philippine coffee producers, but also raised the quality of the products available to coffee buyers and consumers looking to experience the best of the Philippines.”
He said the PCQC has progressed every year and has become a full-fledged coffee competition with strong support from the public and private sectors.
Other winning entries of PCQC 2021 were the coffee entries of Lendilou Loon and Jastine Mae Dubria of Bansalan Davao del Sur, which secured the second and third prizes, respectively, in the specialty Arabica category, while the entries of Marielle Gannad and Erlinda Dao-ayan, both from Gregorio del Pilar, Ilocos Sur won the second and third places respectively in the fine Robusta category. This year’s competition garnered a total of 103 official entries from 12 regions in the Philippines, 69 of which were Robusta, 31 were Arabica, and three were Excelsa coffees.
The PCQC is an annual event that seeks to heighten the consciousness of Filipino farmers on coffee quality and increase their competitiveness in the local and global markets, the ACDI/VOCA said.