THE AGRI EXPERTS

ERNEST ESCALER

Founder, Gourmet Farms

“In the early Eighties, I decided to try and convince local consumers to shift from instant coffee to freshly brewed with our roasted beans under the label Gourmet Coffee,” Ernest Escaler recalls. At the time, most roasted and ground products in the Philippines were imported from abroad, ironic because the country grows cacao.

Years later, Escaler decided to convert a two-hectare orchid farm in Silang, Cavite into an organic vegetable farm now known as Gourmet Farms. Not long after, he opened Gourmet Café