Philippine coffee exports up 27 percent in first half year

clipped from english.people.com.cn Philippine exports of coffee grew 27 percent in the first six months of the year, with Japan the biggest market for the product, the Philippine government said on Thursday. The country's coffee exports jumped to 3.35 million U.S. dollars in the first half of 2007 from 2.64 million dollars in the same period in 2006, the Department of Trade and Industry reported in a statement. The Philippines' coffee exports has sustained its growth in over the last five years, reaching its peak in 2006 at 5.41 million dollars, Thomas Aquino, DTI senior undersecretary, said in the statement. The DTI said that according to the International Coffee Coordinating Agency (ICOCA), bulk of the volume exported was still soluble coffee with 99 percent.