International Profile of Filipino Specialty Coffees Highlighted at Chicago Expo

The Philippines, through the Department of Agriculture and with the support of the Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC – Office of the Counselor of Agriculture and the Consulate General of the Philippines in Chicago, participated in the 2024 Specialty Coffee Expo held at McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois, USA from April 12 to 14, 2024.

A booth of Filipino specialty coffees, made possible through the efforts of the Department of Agriculture (DA), was displayed at the expo. The 10-person delegation was led by DA Undersecretary for Consumer Affairs Atty. Genevieve Velicaria-Guevarra, and Agriculture Councilor Lupiño Lazaro, Jr.

The Consulate General of the Philippines in Chicago, led by Consul General J. Susana V. Paez, attended the delegation and visited the Philippine booth. The Philippine booth presented the Young Farmers Challenge (YFC) implemented by the DA Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service through the presence of farmer-entrepreneur Lendilou Loon of Sergio-Loon Coffee Farm and Philippine Coffee Institute Executive Director Emeline Sabado.

The delegation also held a coffee tasting at the Cupping Exchange room where they tasted coffee produced by Ms. Loon and other young Filipino farmers such as Denz de Ramos and Rebecca Gacayan. Undersecretary Guevarra delivered a welcome message and provided an overview of Philippine specialty coffee to a large audience.

Café Juntos 2024: the celebration of the global grain

The Specialty Coffee Expo is the largest business-to-business trade show in North America. This year it was held at McCormick Place in Chicago, the largest convention center on the continent. The show attracted 17,000 attendees (up 23% from the previous high in 2019) and 602 exhibitors, both all-time highs. Many exhibitors and participants visited the Philippine booth and expressed interest in its specialty coffee and other export products on display.

Specialty coffee is an emerging industry in the Philippines, thanks to a growing crop of young agribusiness entrepreneurs who have benefited from support from the Philippine and US governments and are now producing export-quality coffee.

The Specialty Coffee expo is the largest business-to-business fair in North America

The Philippines’ participation in the expo contributes to the achievement of its medium and long-term plans, as articulated in the Philippine Coffee Roadmap, which is in line with the country’s long-term vision for development. economic, as articulated in AmBisyon Natin 2040.The Consulate General of the Philippines supported Filipino participation as part of its push for economic diplomacy.

The United States government has supported capacity development in the Philippine coffee industry through the United States Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Coffee Advancement and Farm Enterprise (PhilCAFE) project, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and executed by Agricultural Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (ACDI/VOCA).The project is a testimony of the strengthening of relations between the Philippines and the US that translates into concrete results in terms of sustainable livelihoods and economic opportunities.