BY LEANDER C. DOMINGO
BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya (December 11)—The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Region 2 is taking steps to boost Cagayan Valley’s coffee industry by tapping both local and global assistance.
Manilyn Ponce, DTI Region 2 information officer, said the agency, through the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Development Division, is collaborating with the Industry Development Division, Agricultural Cooperative Development International, Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (ACDI-VOCA), and the Cagayan Valley Coffee Industry Development Council improve the coffee industry in the region.
With this, the DTI Region 2 has recently conducted the second session of the Intensive Product Development for Coffee which was held at Bumolo’s Integrated Farm in the upland town of Kasibu in Nueva Vizcaya.
Ponce said the second session was a follow-through training of the coffee technology course in April this year.
“The technology course was intended to help the coffee growers and processors in Cagayan Valley with the development of their coffee beans and to give them knowledge and skills to produce specialty coffee,” Ponce added.
She said 12 coffee stakeholders from the Cagayan Valley region’s various provinces continually participate in the activity to boost the coffee industry.
“The stakeholders are trained on proper harvesting and post-harvest handling, including raw material characterization, drying, hulling, storage and warehousing, the drying of coffee cherries (natural), parchment (washed and honey), and a review of green coffee beans or GCB defects and their effects on cup quality,” Ponce said.
She said the local and global trends in the coffee industry, including the market for specialty arabica and fine robusta, were also presented during the activity at the Bumolo’s Integrated Farm.
Engineer Razul Dakiwas, ACDI-VOCA senior field technical specialist, was tapped as a resource speaker for the session. The DTI Quirino officer in charge provincial director, Mary Ann Dy, graced the training. She was joined by DTI-Trade Industry Development Specialist (TIDS) Ren Mark Marcelo, DTI-TIDS Rosemarie Batang, and DTI Trade and Industry Development Analysts John Edward Iringan.