Sen. Lacson proposes bill to boost coffee industry

To revive the country's once-booming coffee industry and reduce the Philippines' heavy reliance on imports, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson has filed Senate Bill No. 1556, also known as the “Philippine National Coffee Industry Development Act of 2025.”

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Lacson said the proposed law seeks to establish a Philippine National Coffee Industry Development Program and create the Philippine Coffee Board (PCB) under the Department of Agriculture to lead the modernization of the coffee sector and implement nationwide reforms.

"(It) create a National Coffee Board, strengthen every link of the value chain, improve the country's competitiveness, and reduce our heavy reliance on imported coffee," Lacson said in his bill.

Lacson noted that the Philippines was one of the world's leading coffee exporters in the 1880s but now depends on imports for as much as 81 percent of its coffee requirements.

He said farmers continue to struggle due to a lack of government support, outdated farming techniques, poor post-harvest facilities, limited access to quality seedlings and fertilizers, and weak infrastructure such as farm-to-market roads.

As a result, most beans are still sun-dried and processed by small local millers, while some processing plants remain underutilized because of low and inconsistent supply. Research and development efforts in the coffee industry also remain very limited, he added.

The proposed bill is said to set an ambitious goal for the Philippines to become a net coffee exporter by 2035 while improving the livelihoods of small farmers who operate 95 percent of the country's coffee farms.