ILOILO CITY -- Four coffee growers from Western Visayas region were cited for the fine quality of their robusta variety at the recent Philippine Coffee Quality Competition 2022.

“Hats off to our coffee farmers,” the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI-6) said in a statement.
The annual search for the country’s best coffee cited the robusta coffee grown by April Lie Obrique of Murcia town, Negros Occidental province; Alejandro Gonzaga and Antonion Endencio of Sibalom town, Antique province; and Teddy Echalar of Igbaras town in Iloilo province.
Of the four, Obrique’s coffee ranked seventh with a score of 81.25 points. This made Obrique’s coffee qualify for the online auction of the Philippine Coffee Guild, wherein samples of her coffee bean will be sent to registered bidders.
The competition, which aims for recognition of Philippine coffee in the global industry, is a convergence project with the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Agricultural Cooperative Development International and Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (ACDI VOCA), and the Barista and Coffee Academy of Asia Inc. (BCAA).
While the aim is for recognition in the global industry, the competition is also meant to boost the marketability of local coffee beans for local consumption.
In 2017, DTI and DA jointly gave technical assistance to the Western Visayan coffee growers to localize the Philippine Coffee Industry Road Map.
In particular, DTI and DA wanted to boost production as the demand for coffee domestically is more than what can be supplied by local producers.