DTI, Nestlé ink accord to support local coffee farmers

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Nestlé Philippines on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding to help small coffee farmers grow their business.

The Rural Agro-Enterprise Partnership for Inclusive Development and Growth (RAPID Growth) project will extend various forms of assistance, including financing, to farmers in various sectors.

Under the agreement, the DTI and Nestlé Philippines will collaborate to increase the incomes of smallholder coffee farmers through various interventions that include training; access to raw materials, technology or equipment; and provision of a ready market.

DTI will tap into the best practices and established linkages of Nestlé’s NESCAFÉ Plan —the country’s biggest and longest-running private sector coffee sustainability program— and its flagship Project Coffee+, an initiative seeking to transform 1,500 coffee farmers in Bukidnon and Sultan Kudarat into “agripreneurs.”

“The country’s coffee farmers need support, not just from government and manufacturers, but also from consumers by way of their choosing to buy locally manufactured coffee,” said Nestlé Philippines chairman and CEO Kais Marzouki.

As the government’s commercial partner and the largest local coffee buyer in the country, Nestlé will provide a ready market for locally grown Robusta coffee. 

Launched in 2019, the RAPID Growth project is aligned with the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022, and aims to stimulate agri-enterprise development, the DTI said.

Anchored on the value chain approach, it will involve the participation of all government agencies in the delivery of services, expand economic opportunities, create more countryside agri-enterprises, and facilitate access to market, technology financing, and business development support services, it said.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has provided $65.9 million in loans and grants to support the RAPID Growth project, the DTI said. — Ted Cordero/ BM, GMA News