Budding coffee producers dreaming of shade-grown Benguet Arabica in the Cordillera range of mountains in the Philippines.
Welcome to Agnep Heritage Farms.
We are budding coffee producers cultivating shade-grown Benguet Arabica Coffee. We envision planting coffee under the canopy of Benguet pine and Alnos trees. Shade grown coffee is a way of growing coffee in concert with nature.
It is our goal to encourage a future generation of coffee growers in Benguet using sustainable agricultural processes.
Source of featured image: Image via ©Shade Grown Coffee – The Movie.
Who We Are
We are a family of budding coffee producers cultivating shade-grown Benguet arabica coffee in the Cordilleras mountain range of the Philippines. Our farm started in January 2018 with a simple question: “What if we could grow coffee using our great-grandmother’s land?”
Intrigued by this possibility, we took a closer look at our ancestral land in Benguet, and discovered that its forest-like environment had just the right amount of shade for growing coffee. In fact, our great great-grandmother Agnep was Bontoc native and a backyard coffee grower who kept typica plants underneath a thick canopy of Benguet Pine, Kalasan and Alnos trees. Several years ago, our grandmother and uncle planted Typica, Granica, and Red bourbon coffee plants, which ended up yielding cherries despite being left on their own. This was all the encouragement we needed to begin our coffee journey.
Five months later, we finished planting 1,200 red bourbon coffee plants, and we are learning everything we can about coffee farming and processing. Our dream is to offer Philippine specialty coffee to the world, while providing sustainable benefits to local farmers and nurturing the next generation of coffee growers in the Benguet region.
Our Mission
To be among Benguet’s leading producers of specialty coffee that grows sustainable, high-quality Arabica. We aim to be cost-competitive and aligned with global quality standards, while following environment-friendly growing processes. Through our farm, we want to provide sustainable benefits to farmers, processors, traders, exporters and consumers.
The Dado Family
July 9, 2018
We started our farm in 2018 not knowing, the family’s history of planting arabica in the early 1900’s. We just planted Typica seedlings sourced from the mountains above our farm. Before my daughters and I planned a coffee farm in January 2018, we were unaware that there were backyard coffee plants tucked away at the …
Continue reading “Benguet Arabica: Our heritage, and its history”
Blockchain and coffee — sounds cool. No, this is not bitcoin, the cryptocurrency as part of a coffee shop’s payment app. When I order a cup of coffee, I ask for the origin and sometimes even the farmer. As a budding coffee producer, I know how challenging it is to plant Arabica. I have not …
It’s almost a year when the coffee project started. The first person I contacted was Chit Juan, the only Philippine coffee advocate I know of. My question was very basic. It goes to show how little we know of coffee production. I asked: “How does one really start planting coffee? Our land is in Benguet..around …
Continue reading “Meeting Professor Val Macanes at the Benguet State University”
The coffee variety, ARABICA, is now officially in the Slow Food’s Ark of Taste as the number of trees in Benguet continue to dwindle. Many reasons contribute to its declining population, such as climate change, coupled with the diminishing interest of the younger generation to go into coffee farming. Read more?
Our farm is located at Benguet, Philippines. For any inquiries on collaboration or partnerships, please contact us below:
Thank you.
Marielle Dado
[email protected]
Project Director
Düsseldorf, Germany
Noemi Lardizabal-Dado
[email protected]
Farm Manager
Manila, Philppines
Follow us on instagram
@BenguetArabica
