BATAFAMA COOP x PARAMOUNT COFFEE

BaTaFaMa or “Bagobo Tagabawa Farmers Association” is an organized farmers association composed of tribal members in Mt Apo, Managa, Bansalan, Davao Del Sur, spanning 10,000 hectares of ancestral domain land and 50 active coffee farmers Formed in 2018 and under the leadership of Kapwa Foundation NGO, their goal is to form tribal bonds with sustainable farming practices in order to reforest and provide livelihoods to the native tribal ancestors of the area.

We (Paramount Coffee) are primarily a banana exporter/agriculture company under Golden Mindanao Holding Company group Owners love coffee, 2 years ago. We would travel Mt Apo regularly for agricultural prospects and noticed a lot of coffees left on the trees to rot due to lack of drying or processing facilities. The coop leader told us her story about going to the US and someone offered to buy 20 tons but they don’t have capacity for this volume. We became their dry mill with a goal to consolidate enough premium coffees for export so that we may potentially compete globally.

Since we started, we have bought over 500,000 kilos of coffee cherries. We buy their fresh cherries so the farmers can concentrate on farming and instant cashflow to keep them sustained. As opposed to selling green beans which takes them 3 months plus having to find a buyer, we strive to help provide a sustainable living for the farmers and buy top quality fresh coffee cherries from them at the highest price.

One of the owners is also a Coffee Quality Institute Certified Q grader and Q processing professional.

On how they see the future of Philippine’s coffee industry:
“We have good coffee. That’s a given. We just lack volume, consistency, and farmers’ collaboration with each other. Which is the reason why we can’t export or get recognizer globally or on the international level. We need more organized mills/cooperatives in the Philippines to support the whole industry.”

Click on the link below to get a taste of their coffee 🙂
https://www.sinagcoffee.com/product/bagobo-tribe/