By U.S. News Agency / Asian

Coffee industry groups and associations in Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand recently met in Pattaya, Thailand and Pakse, Laos to organize the ASEAN Coffee Federation.

Designed to have a common platform for dialogue, the group also endeavors to promote coffees from ASEAN countries to the growing Asian market for the beverage.

Philippine Coffee Board Co-Chairs Nicholas A. Matti and Pacita “Chit” Juan, represented the Philippines in the organizational meeting of the new body called ASEAN Coffee Federation.

“It is so inspiring to hear from other coffee players that our Mindanao and Cavite coffees are world-class,” said Nicholas Matti.

“We just need to increase our production as our Philippine coffee is very much respected in and around Asia,” he said.

The last decade has seen young Asians adapt to coffee-drinking and not just traditional tea which is known to be the Asian beverage of choice. Coffee is now a popular drink and consumption in all Asian countries is ever-increasing for the last few years.

The Philippines is not an exception as consumption has grown to 65,000 metric tons per year while production has remained steady at 23,000-25,000 MT per year. Even with imports from other Asean countries enjoying the AFTA, it still costs the country more than P4 billion to import its requirements mainly from Indonesia and Vietnam.

“Our Barako and Civet coffee are specialty coffees with high demand,” said Juan, who authored the book ‘Barako :The Big Bean’.

“We Asians should taste coffees first from ASEAN, before we promote other origins,” she suggests. “There is so much good coffee in our region, we need to support each other in promoting our Asian coffees,” she said.

The group had a study tour in the 250-hectare Dao Coffee plantation in the Bolaven Plateau in Champasak Province of Laos.

The ASEAN Coffee Federation will soon have Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam in its future meetings this year.

Meanwhile, the group hopes to see the increase of production in all ASEAN countries, and to come united as a region to encourage Asian coffee drinkers to “Drink ASEAN Coffee”.

The Philippine Coffee Board will be reporting the ASEAN group’s activities to the government agencies involved in coffee production and marketing such as the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Trade and Industry.