Kalsada champions Philippine specialty coffee. Our top priority is to support Filipino coffee producers and their dedicated efforts to bring quality coffee to market. We seek to build trust and partnership with local communities. We invest in machinery and equipment to elevate coffee quality and pay farmers a fair wage. We do this by actively listening to communities to meet their needs. Through our work, we hope to encourage future generations of Filipino coffee growers and spread the word about Philippine specialty coffee.
Sitio Belis sits atop a mountain range in Benguet. It is blessed with natural springs flowing year-round and is home to vegetable and coffee growers. This community has been cultivating coffee since the end of WWII, and while sayote is their primary crop, they expanded their backyard coffee plantation when buyers came looking for supply. The individual farmers of the Ibaloi tribe have been processing their coffees in different ways, with practices that were either passed on from their forefathers or from farmers who have joined training outside the community. There were no set standards, and quality had been inconsistent. With the creation of the community washing station, farmers and their children were trained together. Since then, they have honed their farming skills and have continued to produce high-quality coffee. Sitio Belis was our first mill powered by our Kickstarter's support in 2015. In our first year of operation, we worked with 15 farmers and have since grown to working with 72 farmer families. The mill has two drying houses with 150 drying beds. Our processing equipment and facilities have expanded to a privately donated 600 kilo-per-hour capacity eco-pulper, a huller, and a storage area.
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