Coffee industry seen requiring import curbs to support domestic growers

COFFEE entrepreneur Stella Longa Sutton called for curbs on coffee imports to allow coffee farmers to grow their foothold in the market.

Ms. Longa Sutton, co-founder of the Apo ni Bayosa coffee brand, told BusinessWorld in an interview that coffee is just one of the farm commodities currently beset by foreign competition, hindering the development of domestic industries.

“A lot want to go to a Starbucks, to be seen with a Starbucks mug,” she said, calling for such multinational chains to sell a certain percentage of local coffee.

She said she supports import curbs, including tariffs on foreign coffee, to push roasters to make domestically grown beans their priority.

She dismissed the current approaches to developing coffee, which is to provide seedlings to farmers, adding that coffee develops individualized unique characteristics based on altitude and soil health. — Andre Christopher H. Alampay