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Sustainability
Sowing the seeds of NESCAFE coffee
December 2008
EIGHTY-one year old farmer Claudio Arandio of Silang, Cavite is a late bloomer when it comes to coffee farming, picking it up in 1975 when he was already 49 years old.
However, it was a move he did not regret since it improved his family’s way of life.
“Planting coffee and selling them to NESCAFÉ are two of the most important decisions I have made in my life,” says Arandio in Tagalog. “It allowed me to send my 12 kids to school and to live comfortably.”
One in celebration
And as NESCAFÉ celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, Arandia celebrates his family’s success with the world’s leading instant coffee brand.
He drinks a cup of NESCAFÉ before doing his daily farm chores at Biga, Silang and recalls all the happy memories he has had with his family in their farm.
Arandia fondly remembers the time when all his kids would help picking out the coffee berries during Cavite’s coffee harvest season from November to February. They would then feast on grilled seafood and pork, steam rice and fresh fruits in their makeshift vacation house in the middle of their coffee farm.
Dedication to coffee farming
Unlike most of his neighboring farmers who sold their farm lots to real estate developers, Arandia affirms he will never sell his lots. He is glad that three of his kids have professed dedication in the family coffee farm.
“This farm has made us what we are today,” says Arandia. “I am strong and healthy because of my daily morning work in this farm for more than 25 years.”
Like most farmers in Cavite, Arandio planted pineapples all his life. In 1975, he decided to shift to coffee in his two hectare land because the market price for the beans was high.
He first marketed his produce to retailers in the nearby palengke who sell the roasted and grinded coffee beans in a can.
It wasn’t until the 1990s when he decided to sell his green coffee beans (GCBs) to NESCAFÉ that life tasted a little sweeter.
His two-hectare farmland grew into nine hectares and the carabao and karitela was replaced with two jeepneys and a pickup. Four of his children have also been able to migrate and work in the United States and United Kingdom.
Arandio, who averages a harvest of 10,000 kilos of GCBs yearly, hit the jackpot in 1997 when he reached 12,000 kilos.
Part of his earnings went to the purchase of a maroon Honda Civic which is now parked in a roofed garage of his two-storey house on Aguinaldo Highway.
“NESCAFÉ has been a part of our success. I always cherish that every time I drink my coffee in the morning,” concludes Arandia. |
