KEY industry players of the Philippine coffee community have gathered in Metro Manila as the Philippine Coffee Expo (PCE) 2023 runs from June 2 to 4, 2023 at the World Trade Center.
Centered on the theme “Celebrating Philippine Coffee: Brewing the Future,” the expo seeks to provide players in the coffee supply chain with an avenue that will provide them with the latest updates on the coffee industry and the opportunities they can take advantage of.
Philippine Coffee Guild (PCG) chairperson Dr. Emmanuel Garcia said the Philippine coffee scene “already has the good inputs” to brew a good cup of coffee.
“We have the beans, we have the environment, we already have the tools and ingredients to make a good cup of coffee… We look forward to the future with ‘brewing a beautiful future’ because we already now have the starting materials for it and we look forward to enjoying the gains of what we have accomplished together as an entire industry to the other stakeholders,” Garcia said.
It can be noted that the Philippine coffee scene experienced a steep growth over the past couple of years evident by not only the opening of new coffee shops but also the quality of the coffee beans farmers are producing.
“Year to year we’ve been able to benchmark quality through the Philippine Coffee Quality Competition (PCQC). Year over year we’ve seen the quality go up, we’ve seen more and more coffee being submitted,” Lisa Conway, Coffee Quality Institute Senior Director – Partnerships, said.
The PCQC 2023 will be held on June 4, the last day of the PCE 2023.
Garcia said the PCE 2023 celebrates the gains made by the Philippine coffee industry.
“We are actually toe to toe with the world’s best,” he said, adding that the feedback for the winning coffee beans of the PCQC has been well received by the international committee, especially when it was showcased in the World Coffee Expo.
Garcia also noted that there is a growing maturity among consumers of coffee.
“When we announced the lineup of the plenary speakers, that’s when the registration shot up the steepest— it was almost vertical, and to us, we interpret that as having a coffee-drinking public that is already maturing,” he said.
Garcia added, “They [are] already looking for more knowledge and information and this is the kind of growth that we want. An industry that not just pushes consumption but also maturity which leads us to look bigger and tackle more serious issues such as sustainability and food security.”
Meanwhile, PCE 2023 features over a hundred coffee brands ranging from coffee equipment distributors, coffee farmers, roasters, and coffee shops.
There are also talks on the opportunities and trends in the coffee industry.
“This particular expo is proof that the coffee industry has already grown to a point where it deserves to have its own independent expo like this one… and in that regard, the PCE would accelerate the growth of the industry, which definitely would be felt by all the players,” Garcia said.
The PCE 2023 is organized by the Philippine Coffee Guild, ACDI/VOCA, PhilCafe, Dept. Of Agriculture, Dept. Of Trade and Industry, and the Barista and Coffee Academy of Asia.
To learn more about the expo, visit https://philippinecoffeeexpo.com/