The Brazilian (coffee) model...

... is one to learn from.

The biggest coffee producing nation shows the positive effects of an increasing local coffee consumption--3.1% in 2011. For one, it spurred the development of coffee related products such as coffee makers. For another, it led to higher quality coffee resembled in gourmet brands now filling supermarket shelves.

The coffee industry association ABIC, "attributes coffee’s comparatively rapid growth in the emerging economic power to increased disposable income that is also making consumers fussier about the coffees they drink in a nation long-accustomed to dark-roasted, lower-cost brews."

Brazilians consume 45% of the coffee the nation produces, leaving the rest for exports. In comparison, the Philippines' total coffee harvest merely covers 46% of local coffee consumption, leaving the gap for importers. So why not grow more coffee in the Philippines and have local coffee farmers cash in on the missing 54% of local coffee demand?

One reason Philippine farmers are reluctant to expand (or even to continue) coffee farming is the perceived low price they get out of their green coffee beans. A big junk of the local coffee harvest is of medium quality. Mainly attributed to lack of modern farming technologies and adequate post-harvest treatment. The result: low price for low quality beans. Without the incentive to actually earning money from coffee, farmers convert their fields to other crops.

But the perception of low income from coffee is wrong. Coffee can be a very viable business, as every coffee roaster will tell you. No wonder. The key to earning more money from coffee is to process green coffee beans into roasted and eventually brewed coffee. The answer is an appropriate roasting technology, designed to function in the coffee growing region.

A company who took on this challenge is the Philippine coffee company Bote Central, Inc. It designed and manufactured a fridge-sized roasting facility which runs on LPG. Now, farmers can add value to their low quality coffee beans which are unsuited for the high paying export market.

On top, drinking their own coffee they start to understand quality--or the lack of it. Just like Brazilians are used to drinking "dark roast" (which basically means roasted long enough to make an equal bitter taste, the secret to hide impurities), Filipinos are used to drinking 3in1 instant coffee.

The model to copy is to stimulate local consumption by enabling farmers to process their coffee and earn more from it. There is no better incentive than a financial one. Soon farmers will convert and expand their farms to coffee trees, filling the 54% gap to cover local consumption. And maybe more...