Cassia invests in Rocky Mountain Café

Rocky Mountain Café Inc, a fully integrated coffee company involved in both coffee production and distribution in the Philippines, just concluded, with the assistance of Solveigh, an independent financial advisory firm from Hong Kong, an agreement with Cassia Investment Ltd, to capitalize Rocky Mountain.

Cassia Investment Ltd, a Hong Kong based investment fund investing in fast emerging markets, signed an Investment Agreement with Rocky Mountain Café Inc, to expand Arabica coffee production in the Philippines. Cassia Investment aims at increasing Arabica coffee production by 1,000 Ha and expands Rocky Mountain coffee distribution to other segments of the coffee industry.

The Philippines offers fantastic business opportunities in the coffee industry as the country imports 90% of the coffee it consumes, says Faris Ayoub, managing director of Cassia Investment. The Philippine economy is growing fast, its middle class is expanding rapidly, and the demand for quality coffee products is increasing by more than 20% annually.

According to Pierre Yves Cote, president of Rocky Mountain Café Inc, Cassia`s investment will speed up the expansion of Rocky Mountain plantations nationwide, from Northern Luzon to Mindanao. Rocky Mountain plantations will reforest 1,000 Ha of deforested areas, and create over 2,000 jobs for indigenous people located in high elevations where Arabica coffee grows best. This will contribute to economic development and to empowering small farmers to become entrepreneur and be in control of their own future, says Cote.

Rocky Mountain is also actively involved in the roasting, packaging and distribution of Philippine coffee products. The Rocky Mountain Coffee brand is now available in 52 cities and 200 supermarkets and in hundreds of hotels and restaurants nationwide, and it is exported to Canada and the USA. According to Cote, the company has plans to expand its export to China and the Middle East in the coming months as the production of coffee products is increasing in the Philippines.

A new company called Rocky Mountain Café Asia PTE Ltd has been registered in Singapore to manage Rocky Mountain future investment in South East Asia and to prepare the company for its next expansion phase.