Koronadal City, South Cotabato – The Department of Trade and Industry 12 (DTI-12) through its Rural Agro-enterprise Partnership for Inclusive Development and Growth (RAPID Growth) Project launched the first Kape Dose Festival on September 29, 2022 at Veranza Mall, General Santos City.
The 3-day event, with the theme “Empowering Smallholder Farmers through Sustainable Coffee Partnership,” will run until 1 October 2022 and is aimed to provide a venue for coffee producers and processors to showcase their products from green coffee beans to roasted coffee, as well as provide free public coffee learning sessions from industry players and successful coffee entrepreneurs.
DTI-12 OIC-Regional Director Flora Politud-Gabunales recognized the importance of the coffee producers and processors in the economy of Region 12 and said that the successful launching of the event is a product of forging partnerships with the Department of Agriculture 12 (DA-12), the local coffee stakeholders, and the business sectors including the Nestle Philippines and the Coffee Heritage Project.
Politud-Gabunales said that Region 12 being the number one coffee producer contributing about 32.4% of the total domestic coffee production, it is being positioned to be officially dubbed as the coffee capital of the Philippines.
DTI-12 also signed separately during the launching event a memorandum of understanding with Nestle Philippines represented by its head of corporate affairs Jose Uy, and the Coffee Heritage Project through its executive director Riche Watanabe for a commercial partnership agreement and mutual support to the inclusive and sustainable development of the industry.
Meanwhile, DA-12 Technical Director for Research and Regulation Dr. Lorna Vilbar said that DA is committed to working with DTI to provide the necessary support and assistance to the coffee farmers of the region to increase coffee production and meet the demands of the market.
Aside from the selling of coffee products, Kape Dose Festival also features business opportunity sessions with successful coffee farmers and entrepreneurs as resource speakers, a financing forum with partner banks and financial institutions, and the coffee new technology sessions for the latest coffee technologies.
The public can also avail of free brewed coffee featuring the local products of Region 12, and the coffee appreciation session with ACDI/VOCA – a partner non-government organization of DTI-12 in the coffee development and promotion.
The newly elected officers of the Region XII Coffee Council, chaired by Ronan Eugene Garcia, the former mayor of Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat, took their oath of office as part of the Kape Dose launching ceremony.
Politud-Gabunales invited the public to visit the Kape Dose Festival, patronize the local coffee of the region and participate in the free coffee learning sessions.
The RAPID Growth is a special project of DTI, with coffee as one of the priority crops, which aims to propel agriculture-based processing enterprises and entrepreneurial communities to become innovative, productive, and competitive so that they will be capacitated in meeting the challenges of the global market.♦
Date of Release: 05 October 2022