Coffee has always been a big part of the Philippine agriculture landscape. Though the Philippines ranks low today in terms of annual coffee exports, the country was once a top exporter of coffee globally back in the 1800s.
Yet there is no shortage of initiatives to strengthen coffee production in the Philippines and grow the country’s budding coffee culture. Contributing to this is Davao-based Paramount Coffee, which notably sells Arabica coffee and coffee beans sourced from Davao’s scenic Mt. Apo. Paramount Coffee also sells other coffee varieties such as robusta (the type most commonly grown in the Philippines) and even the rarer Civet coffee. A physical cafe in Davao City also offers patrons pour-over coffee, cafe latte, creamy macchiato, and more.
Paramount Coffee started out when its founder Franco Soriano Roque came across an initiative by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2018 to grow Davao’s coffee industry. This special attention was necessary because unlike crops such as pineapple, bananas, and sugar that can grow in large plantations situated in lowlands, Arabica coffee is best grown in higher elevations such as Mt. Apo. It also helps that the fertile volcanic soil of the Mt. Apo area allows Arabica to naturally thrive.
Roque knew that the USDA initiative was a prime opportunity. “Philippine coffee has no problems competing when it comes to taste and quality, but the problem is our inability to produce at a high volume compared to other countries,” Roque explained. “But I definitely see that as an important problem worth solving. In fact, the importance of increasing local coffee production of high quality is why we’re named Paramount Coffee in the first place.”
To solve the problem of low production volume, the initiative from the USDA involved inviting businesspersons such as Roque to contribute what they can to improving and growing Davao coffee. The initiative allowed him to meet with important players in the local coffee supply chain such as farmers associations. These farmers associations do not exclusively work for any one coffee company and often handle their own direct selling and pricing. What coffee companies like Paramount Coffee do however, is help these farmers associations expand their market reach and increase production when possible.
For example, Paramount Coffee manages a small 13-hectare coffee farm on top of the sourcing it does from around the Mt. Apo area. Their beans are then sold online through online marketplaces like Shopee and its Davao City cafe.
Paramount Coffee goes above and beyond the simple pursuit of profit. The brand understands its potential to create a positive social impact and has partnered with the Bagobo Tagabawa Farmers’ Association (BaTaFaMa) as part of its goal of creating a fully integrated supply chain from seed to cup. BaTaFaMa is a people’s organization composed of the local and Bagobo Tagabawa tribal farmers of the Mt. Apo area.
Paramount Coffee partnered with BaTaFaMa because it sees how much the association improves the lives of Mt. Apo coffee farmers. For example, the association uses the collective bargaining power to achieve a better market price for farmers when selling their coffee beans. Becoming an association member also grants farmers access to crucial equipment like roasters and hulling machines. Finally, BaTaFaMa even goes as far as educating farmers on specific practices to help them cultivate higher-quality coffee. The overall effect enables farmers to add greatly to their bottom-line to the point that they are now able to send their kids through college and renovate their houses.
“Partnering with associations like BaTaFaMa is crucial to us because it’s an opportunity to guarantee we’re adding to the income of local coffee farmers,” said Roque. “Empowering them to make a living this way also ensures that their way of life and culture is preserved. We aren’t going there telling them what to do and changing the way they do things. There is respect in the partnership.”
Additionally, working with BaTaFaMa even contributes to the Mt. Apo areas reforestation and preservation. The logic here is that by empowering local farmers and giving them a sustainable livelihood, they’ll also be in a better position to take care of the environment around them.
Today, Paramount Coffee is notably one of the few companies to source Arabica beans from the highlands of Mt. Apo. Its dedication to working with farmers with the expertise of farming such a difficult crop allows the company to offer customers a rich, high-quality cup of coffee they can’t get anywhere else—especially considering that a majority of Philippine coffee production involves robusta beans instead.
Paramount Coffee’s dedication to promoting both the unique, local coffee and the farmers behind it is a big part of the popularity it enjoys today. The company’s social media pages boasts thousands of followers and enjoys frequent inclusion in lists of Davao City’s top cafes.
Roque himself is happy with what Paramount Coffee has achieved. “The local coffee scene has so many opportunities we haven’t even explored yet. I’m confident that Paramount Coffee will lead the way in showing us how to appreciate local coffee in a way that is inclusive and sustainable.”