Translations:Coffee in world cultures/41/en

Philippines

This section is an excerpt from History of coffee § Philippines.[edit]

The Philippines is one of the few countries that produces the four varieties of commercially viable coffee: Arabica, Liberica (Barako), Excelsa and Robusta. Although it is generally said that coffee was introduced to Lipa in 1740 by a Spanish Franciscan friar, there is actually little first-hand evidence to substantiate this. Regardless, by the early 19th century, coffee was being cultivated throughout the Philippines and subsequently exported to America and Australia, followed by Europe with the opening of the Suez Canal. Lipa is commonly attributed as being the center of this cultivation, until roughly 1889, when its industry abruptly failed, likely due to pests, coffee rust (which the Philippines had managed to avoid for longer than the rest of the world), and political factors.

Following this destruction, the Philippines' place in the global coffee supply chain faltered, and would be slow to recover. Throughout the 20th century, various government initiatives were implemented to revive the industry, despite that the Philippines would gradually begin importing more instant coffee than it was exporting. Regardless, a coffee culture has been developing since the 1990s, following the Philippines joining the International Coffee Organization in 1980, and now many specialty coffee shops can be found around the country.