The Department of Agriculture has allotted ₱2.5 billion for farm-to-market roads in Sultan Kudarat as the government moves to strengthen local coffee production in one of the country’s top coffee-growing provinces.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco “Kiko” Tiu Laurel Jr. said the road network is meant to improve access to remote agricultural areas and open around 29,000 hectares of land for coffee and other high-value crops. The project is part of the DA’s broader push to raise domestic coffee output, especially in Mindanao, where much of the country’s coffee is grown.
The investment comes as the Philippines remains heavily dependent on imported coffee despite having local producers in key growing areas. The Philippine Coffee Industry Roadmap cited by the Philippine Rural Development Project said the country was only 15 percent self-sufficient in coffee, while Mindanao accounted for 83.6 percent of national output.
Sultan Kudarat has been identified as a major coffee-producing area. Earlier PSA-cited data reported by MindaNews showed the province producing 21,442 metric tons of coffee, making it the country’s top coffee producer for that reference year.
The DA has also worked with private-sector partners to improve coffee productivity. Under a partnership with Nestlé Philippines, the DA targeted higher Robusta yields in Mindanao, where the crop is widely grown and used for soluble coffee production. Nestlé said the program aimed to help farmers improve productivity and support the long-term goal of making the Philippines more self-sufficient in coffee.
The road program does not erase the country’s import dependence, but it targets one of the most basic problems facing farmers: access. For coffee growers in remote areas, better roads can lower transport costs, reduce post-harvest losses, and make it easier to move beans from farms to buyers.
