LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The 6th La Trinidad Coffee Festival, with its yearly theme, “Brewing unity Through Coffee,” officially opened on February 28 at La Trinidad Municipal Park.
The opening program for the festival consisted of performances from the La Trinidad Municipal Employees Association (LTMEA) dance troupe and the LTMEA choir, as well as welcoming remarks from Municipal officials. In attendance also were representatives from Benguet State University, The Department of Agriculture – Cordillera Administrative Region (DOA-CAR), the Department of Tourism – CAR, the Department of Trade and Industry – CAR (DTI-CAR), TESDA Benguet, and the Department of Science and Technology Benguet (DOST).
Municipal Vice Mayor Hon. Roderick C. Awingan shares that La Trinidad Municipal Hall received statistics from the Municipal Agriculture Office in 2015 that the municipality produced 17,000 metric tons of Coffea Arabica and estimated 4,500 trees of the said variety.
Awingan added in his welcoming remarks, “Let us talk about production, let us talk about our farmers, let us talk about the by-products, let us talk about coffee in such a way that we would infuse development in our municipality. That is what the coffee festival is all about.”
Registered guests were treated to either black coffee or a latte for Coffee Lane, available until March 3.
Coffee Lane features mostly coffee products and by-products, such as baked goods and alcoholic beverages. Items with a coffee or coffee beans motif, such as coasters and mug cozies, can be purchased at Coffee Lane.
Farmers assembled in the La Trinidad Municipal Park for the awards and recognition for the Search for Coffee Producer of the Year and the coffee cupping results, a competition in which coffee cups are brewed and evaluated for their quality.
The La Trinidad Coffee Festival and the upcoming Strawberry Festival are twin celebrations of the municipality’s primary agricultural products and its farmers after the three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will end on March 2, 2023. By Milles Rodriguez
