Among the exhibitors at SALAAM 2026 was a name more familiar to coffee buyers than halal traders: Rey John Abas Basco, a robusta grower from the Municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino (SNA) in Sultan Kudarat, representing 7R Coffee Processing and General Merchandise.
His presence at the Department of Tourism’s halal expo points to where the country’s halal push is headed next: past food and hospitality, and into agricultural exports that haven’t traditionally marketed themselves around religious certification at all.
Basco’s robusta has already made a name for itself without any halal label attached. His beans were voted Top 1 Robusta at the Philippine Coffee Quality Competition (PCQC) 2024, grown at roughly 960 meters above sea level and posting a cupping score of 86.45 — notes of wine, citrus, dark chocolate, and berries on a variety more commonly known for a flatter, more bitter profile.
He placed again at the Southeast Asia Green Coffee Competition during the International Coffee Innovation Summit 2025 in Tacurong City, and this year he’s coming off another strong showing at the Philippine Coffee Expo 2026, held June 5 to 7 at One Ayala in Makati.
What’s new is the halal certification, secured in 2025 with help from the Department of Trade and Industry. Basco said the process wasn’t simple.
“Getting halal certification is not easy. It’s a lot like applying for an FDA license — there are requirements at every step, and your process has to meet the standard from start to finish. DTI walked us through all of it, and I am very grateful for their help,” he said.
For Basco, the certification isn’t a formality. It’s a market. “Halal is a big market for us. It’s not only about getting the certificate, but it also opens doors to buyers we wouldn’t normally reach,” he said.
A bigger map for Sultan Kudarat
Sultan Kudarat is already the country’s leading coffee-producing province, accounting for an estimated 78% of Region 12’s coffee farms, with more than 20,000 hectares planted and roughly 19,700 metric tons of green coffee beans produced in 2023, according to DTI data.
Basco’s certification adds a second identity to that production base, one that connects directly to the same halal market DOT has spent the past three editions of SALAAM trying to build.
“My hope is for Mindanao, especially Sultan Kudarat, to be known not just as a robusta-producing area, but as a place that produces halal-certified robusta the world can trust,” Basco said.
He also tied his recent competition wins to that same goal. “Winning at the Philippine Coffee Expo helps put our place on the map. It shows that Sultan Kudarat can produce world-class robusta. I want this to open more doors, not just for me, but for the other farmers here too,” he said.
Tourism Secretary Dita Angara-Mathay told SALAAM exhibitors and attendees the halal economy connects tourism to agriculture, hospitality to manufacturing, and local communities to global markets, a line that describes Basco’s situation almost exactly: a farmer whose product now sits at the intersection of an agricultural export, a religious certification, and an international buyer base DOT is actively courting.
Rising Muslim-friendly destination
The Philippines’ broader halal credentials have already drawn attention from outside. The country was named a Rising Muslim-friendly Destination in the Mastercard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index, an annual benchmark that CrescentRating runs to score how well non-Muslim-majority countries serve Muslim travellers and markets, placing the Philippines alongside Thailand, Ireland, and Spain in that category. CrescentRating also runs the Halal in Travel Global Summit, where Tourism Undersecretary Myra Paz Valderrosa-Abubakar was named Halal Travel Personality of the Year and Megaworld Hotels and Resorts won Muslim-friendly Hotel Chain of the Year.
CrescentRating’s index serves as a reference point for the halal travel and trade industry to assess which countries and products meet baseline standards, which is part of why a DTI-assisted certification for a small robusta operation in Sultan Kudarat fits into a much larger picture than just one farmer’s paperwork. It’s the same infrastructure DOT has been building through SALAAM’s accommodation standards and food certification programs, just applied on a farm-by-farm basis.
Coffee as the next halal export
Basco’s case suggests where the next stage of that push might land. SALAAM’s exhibitor floor at Gateway Mall 2 was dominated by food, wellness, and hospitality brands — Mubaarak Fresh Food, Eldica Seafood Processing, Philippine Wild Raw Honey, Rawdah Cosmetics, Robinsons Hotels and Resorts, among others.
A halal-certified robusta grower from Mindanao’s top coffee province is a different kind of exhibitor: an agricultural producer whose international ambitions were already in motion through coffee competitions, with halal certification now added as an additional route to market.
Whether that combination scales beyond one farmer’s operation in SNA, Sultan Kudarat is the open question. For now, Basco’s answer is to keep entering the cupping competitions and let the wins do the talking, while leaning on the certification to reach buyers a coffee trophy alone can’t open the door to.
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