Ilocos Sur Coffee: Robusta Output, Prices and PCQC Wins

By Robin Salvador, co-founder, Caffeine Brothers
Last updated: November 8, 2026

Quick answer: Ilocos Sur is a small Robusta province with a big competition record. PSA data show it produced 38.47 tonnes of green coffee beans in 2025, mostly Robusta (31.35 tonnes), from about 204 hectares and 101,230 bearing trees. That is the largest output in the Ilocos Region but only about 0.11% of Philippine coffee. Farmers from upland towns such as Sigay and Gregorio del Pilar have topped the Robusta category of the Philippine Coffee Quality Competition since 2018, often with natural process coffees.

Most coffee talk in the Philippines starts with Benguet, Batangas or Mindanao. Ilocos Sur rarely comes up, even though its Robusta growers keep winning national cupping awards. This guide uses the Philippine Statistics Authority’s OpenSTAT tables for production, area, trees and farmgate prices, plus reports from DTI, PNA, PIA and MindaNews. It is part of our origins series with Batangas coffee, Sultan Kudarat coffee and the Philippine Coffee Quality Competition.

Where is coffee grown in Ilocos Sur?

Ilocos Sur sits on the northwest coast of Luzon, with Vigan City as its capital. PhilAtlas gives a land area of 2,596 square kilometres, a 2020 population of 706,009, and 2 cities and 32 municipalities. The lowland coast is known for tobacco and heritage towns. Coffee grows in the uplands to the east, toward the Cordillera.

A Philippine Information Agency feature from October 2022 names nine coffee-growing towns: Sigay, Gregorio del Pilar, Salcedo, Cervantes, Suyo, Sugpon, San Emilio, Quirino and Alilem. Sigay made coffee its one town, one product in 2009, according to a 2014 Agriculture Monthly profile of a San Elias farmer with two hectares of Robusta. The same profile describes Sigay as a trading point where Luzon coffee traders buy beans.

How much coffee does Ilocos Sur produce?

PSA’s Crops Production Survey reports coffee as green coffee beans (GCB) by province. The production table was last updated August 28, 2026, and its next update is due November 27, 2026. For 2025 it shows Ilocos Sur at 38.47 tonnes, up 12.7% from 34.13 tonnes in 2024.

Ilocos Sur grows 79.2% of the region’s Robusta. Region I’s Arabica mostly comes from Pangasinan, so the province’s share of regional Arabica is small at 6.4%. Its Excelsa, though only 4.77 tonnes, is 0.24% of national Excelsa output.

The long-run series has a break worth knowing. Ilocos Sur output was 23.55 tonnes in 2010 and 24.29 tonnes in 2015, then 38.05 tonnes in 2016. Area in the PSA table jumps from about 102 hectares in 2014 to 182 hectares in 2015, and Pangasinan’s output jumps from 1.72 to 39.16 tonnes in 2016. Those steps look like revisions or wider survey coverage, so we don’t read them as real growth. From 2016 to 2024 the province stayed between about 31.6 and 34.5 tonnes a year.

How productive are Ilocos Sur farms?

Dividing output by area gives about 0.19 tonnes per hectare in 2025, against 0.29 tonnes for the Philippines as a whole (35,645.64 tonnes from 124,982.58 hectares). Per bearing tree the gap is smaller: 0.38 kg per tree in Ilocos Sur against 0.42 kg nationally. These are our calculations from the PSA tables. The area figure stayed at exactly 196.15 hectares from 2020 to 2024, which suggests carried-forward estimates, so treat the per-hectare number as rough.

Local reports point to the same pressures seen in other small origins. The 2022 PIA feature quotes concern about an ageing farmer base, and it describes DTI support for growers through its Industry Cluster Enhancement program. In March 2023, PNA reported that DTI gave a shared service facility worth ₱670,000 to the San Elias Coffee Growers Association in Sigay, the town’s second after one given to the Sigay Coffee Growers Cooperative, which has 236 members.

What do farmers get paid for Ilocos Sur coffee?

PSA’s farmgate price table (0032M4AFN08) tracks green coffee bean prices by province. For Ilocos Sur it has no coffee prices from 2015 to 2023. The first data appear in 2024.

Read the Ilocos Sur figure with care. The 2025 average of ₱616.67 comes from three months, and the monthly values are round numbers, which suggests very few price reports. The national Robusta average is built from many provinces. Still, it fits other reports. In March 2023 DTI Ilocos Sur director Rosario Quodala told PNA that local coffee was “currently pegged at PHP700 per kilo,” though the article does not say whether that is green, roasted or ground coffee. Older reports quote prices per ganta, a volume measure, so they can’t be compared with per-kilo figures.

For context, our own coffee price guide tracks the national farmgate series. Our Batangas Robusta retails at ₱231 for 200 g and ₱813 for 1 kg roasted (prices checked November 8, 2026). Roasted retail prices include roasting loss, packing and delivery, so they are not comparable with green bean farmgate prices.

How has Ilocos Sur done in the Philippine Coffee Quality Competition?

The Philippine Coffee Quality Competition (PCQC) is run by DTI, DA and the Barista and Coffee Academy of Asia, and it scores coffees on the specialty 100-point scale. A June 2023 PIA feature says Ilocos Sur has been “consistent in securing top places in the competition since joining in 2018.” DTI Region 1 reported that Ilocos Sur Robusta took the top five places in 2021, with 103 entries assessed nationwide.

In 2023, MindaNews reported that Ilocos Sur farmers won 10 of the top 12 Robusta places, and PNA reported that growers in Gregorio del Pilar and Sigay won the fine Robusta category for the third consecutive time. PIA says the first-place lot also won Best Processing for Robusta, Natural. In 2022, the Inquirer and Manila Bulletin reported that Mabini Ubuan of Sigay was named Best Philippine Original Robusta with 84.41 points. PNA later listed tasting notes for that coffee as cherry, almond, caramel, dark chocolate, dates and prunes.

For 2026, MindaNews reported on June 8 that “Ilocos Sur farmers dominated in the ‘naturals’ category, winning all in the Top 12.” The article gives no names or scores for those winners, and we could not reach a source that does, so we don’t list them here. Our PCQC guide covers the 2026 Arabica and experimental Robusta results.

What is a natural process Robusta?

A natural, or dry process, coffee is dried with the fruit still around the bean, then hulled. A washed coffee has the fruit removed before drying. The fruity notes PNA reported for the 2022 winner, such as cherry, dates and prunes, are the kind of flavours often linked with naturals. PIA’s 2023 feature says the first-place Ilocos Sur lot won Best Processing for Robusta, Natural, and MindaNews treated naturals as a separate category in 2026.

How to buy or try Ilocos Sur coffee

1. Look for the grower groups. Reports name the Sigay Coffee Growers Cooperative, the San Elias Coffee Growers Association and the Tirad Pass Growers Association in Gregorio del Pilar.
2. Check provincial trade fairs. The province and the ISEED Marketing Cooperative ran “Kape De Ylocos: A Robusta Coffee Trade Fair” in Vigan on October 24 to 29, 2022, where PIA said more than 13 coffee shops earned over ₱200,000.
3. Ask for the process. If you want the style that wins competitions, ask whether a lot is natural or washed and when it was harvested.
4. Expect small volumes. At under 40 tonnes a year for the whole province, competition lots and single-farm coffees sell out fast.
5. Compare by grams per cup. A competition lot costs more per kilo, so compare the cost of a 10 g dose rather than the bag price.

Caffeine Brothers does not sell Ilocos Sur coffee. If you want a Philippine Robusta for daily brewing, our Robusta beans come from Batangas and are roasted dark.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Volume of Production of Non-Food and Industrial Crops (0072E4EVCP1). Philippine Statistics Authority OpenSTAT, updated Aug 28, 2026. Ilocos Sur, Region I and Philippine coffee output 2010 to 2025, via the PxWeb API
2. Area Planted/Harvested (0092E4EAHM1). PSA OpenSTAT, updated Sep 1, 2026. Coffee area by type
3. Number of Bearing Trees (0122E4EBTM1). PSA OpenSTAT, updated Aug 28, 2026. Coffee bearing trees by type
4. Farmgate Prices of Commercial Crops (0032M4AFN08). PSA OpenSTAT, listing updated Aug 28, 2026. Green coffee bean farmgate prices by province and month
5. Ilocos Sur Profile. PhilAtlas. Land area, 2020 population, cities and municipalities
6. DTI aids coffee farmers, keeps coffee industry alive in Ilocos Sur. Philippine Information Agency, October 2022. Nine coffee towns, ICE program, ageing farmers
7. Coffee growers, café owners featured in Ilocos Sur’s first coffee festival. Philippine Information Agency, Nov 3, 2022. Kape De Ylocos trade fair
8. Ilocos Sur: The land of the best Robusta coffee in PH. Philippine Information Agency, June 2023. Results since 2018, Best Processing for Robusta Natural
9. Mindanao coffee farmers sweep PCQC 2023. MindaNews, June 5, 2023. Robusta top 12 names, towns and scores
10. Ilocos Sur’s robusta coffee hailed as ‘best’ in PH. Philippine News Agency, June 5, 2023. Third straight win, 85.22 top score
11. Ilocos Sur coffee growers get boost from shared service facility. Philippine News Agency, March 31, 2023. ₱670,000 facility, 236-member cooperative, ₱700 per kilo quote, tasting notes
12. Mindanao farmers dominate coffee quality competition. MindaNews, June 8, 2026. Ilocos Sur won all top 12 naturals in 2026
13. Ilocos Sur coffee wins best in nationwide competition. DTI Region 1, released July 9, 2021. Robusta top five, 103 entries
14. Ilocos Sur’s robusta coffee hailed as best in PH for 2nd year. Inquirer, March 2022. Ubuan, Best Philippine Original Robusta, 84.41
15. Ilocos farmer produces quality coffee beans. Agriculture Monthly (July 2014 issue). Sigay one town, one product since 2009

Want a Philippine Robusta for every day? Try our Batangas Robusta or browse the shop, with free grinding to whole bean, coarse, normal or fine. Cafés and offices can order 10 kg boxes through wholesale. Contact us with questions.