Sagada & How To Grow The Best Coffee In The World – Rituals & Economies Of Scale

Now comes a refreshing thought from old, rice monoculture Philippines. Margaux Salcedo says, "Sagada Rituals Make For 'Best Coffee In The World'" (24 February 2019, Inquirer.Net, business.inquirer.net). The above image shows Goad Sibayan, Cordillera coffee grower par excellance,  first farmer partner of Rich Watanabe of the Coffee Heritage Project, CHP, "an initiative that seeks to partner with farmers around the country and encourage coffee production while preserving various indigenous or local peoples' agricultural traditions and practices." In 2012, Rich opened the SGD Coffee Roastery, a coffee shop in Maginhawa in Quezon City, "a cafe/bistro selling and serving single origin beans from Sagada." If you ask Rich, the Sagada coffee is "full-bodied, with a creamy texture, both sweet and spicy and with nutty notes."

Why "Sagada Rituals Make For 'Best Coffee In The World'?" Says Rich, "There are rituals for planting that you have to respect, such as planting only prior to the full moon." I myself know that the biodynamic agriculture developed by European philosopher Robert Steiner  has similar Sagada spiritual dimensions, and it is respected worldwide. In fact, my Xavier U student in organic farming, Nicky Perlas, graduating into biodynamic farming, won the alternative-Nobel, a Right Livelihood Award.

"Recognizing that respecting the coffee culture and traditions of Sagada is as important as growing the beans, Rich was inspired to start the Coffee Heritage Project, with Goad becoming the first partner farmer."

And this is the part I like best with the arrangements to grow coffee. Miss Margaux quotes Rich as saying:

We don't own property. Instead, we partner with landowners… If someone has land that has qualities that would be ideal for growing coffee, we partner with the landowner by giving (him) technical assistance and free seedlings. Then we buy the coffee beans from (him).

Miss Margaux says the CHP has partnered with over 30 farm sites. I say this is a non-cooperative cooperative, no formal association required. Here, the partners are free to sell their coffee to other buyers. Primarily, it is technology applied & economies of scale, a paradigm Secretary of Agriculture William Dar would approve.

Of course, loyalty to the CHP is a strong force. To "grow the best coffee in the world," Rich says, he sought the assistance of UP Los Baños to develop a method he calls "quality-focused way" for planting coffee. "Partners of the CHP are given the technical know-how to plant using this method."

And so, in 2017, Sagada coffee was recognized as one of the best in the world, with Goad's Bana's Coffee winning the Medaille Gourmet (Gourmet Medal) in the "International Contest of Coffees Roasted in their Countries of Origin" organized by the Avpa (Agence Pour la Valorisation des Produits Agricoles), a nongovernmental and nonprofit organization "that seeks to improve the quality of agricultural products amid the pressure of mass marketing." The prize was received in Paris, France.

The CHP initiative has expanded with partner-farms in Bukidnon, Batangas, Nueva Vizcaya, Ifugao and Mountain Province. You cannot keep a good thing private!@517