THE first Philippine coffee board annual cup quality competition in the Philippines will be held on March 1-4 at the Cavite State University and one of the organizers, the Agricultural Cooperative Development International (ACDI/Voca) Philippines, urged all Filipinos engaged in coffee production in the country to participate.
The competition is open to anyone who is currently involved in coffee production in the Philippines, including but not limited to coffee cooperatives, farmers, processors, and exporters.
Interested participants must submit a maximum of one sample of each coffee category. Submitted samples must be five kilos each in green coffee with moisture content of nine to 11 percent. Only the first 110 samples will be accepted.
Failure to meet any of these requirements will result to disqualification and participating fees will be forfeited.
Samples for Robusta, Arabica, and Liberica and Excelsa coffees are accepted. Only Robusta and Arabica coffees will be given a cupping score result.
“Coffee samples of category 3 (Liberica and Excelsa) will be evaluated by the judging panel following CQI Robusta protocols for sensory characteristics only, with distinctive lots receiving recognition at the discretion of the head judge, while a ‘Judges’ Selection’ honorable mention will be received by the preferred coffee of each type (Liberica and Excelsa).”
A P500 participation fee will be collected for smallholder farmers or farmer communities, and P1,500 for cooperatives, P3,500 for estates, and P5,000 for exporters.
Grand winners for the Arabica and Robusta category will each receive a trophy and a prize that will be specified in the next weeks, including an ACDI/Voca-sponsored US-trip to attend the 2017 Specialty Coffee Association of America Expo on April 20-23 at Seattle, Washington.
The second and third placers will each receive a trophy and a prize, to be announced over the next weeks.
Placeholders will receive recognition in a post-event statement to international coffee trade media.
Winners will be requested to attend the awarding ceremony on March 4 at the Cavite State University.
For more information about the competition, inquiries can be emailed to Thelonious Trimmell of ACDI/Voca thru ttrimmell@acdivoca-ph.org.
