however, a native chief named camising from kabayan purportedly saw the benefits of the crop and introduced arabica coffee to his own people. his successes convinced neighboring communities to take up coffee cultivation on their own. benguet coffee was part of the booming coffee industry of the philippines during the 1880s and 1890s, which reached annual coffee exports of up to 16 million pounds. however, coffee rust devastated the plantations in 1899 and coffee production plummeted. by 1917, annual total export of coffee from the philippines only amounted to around 3,000 pounds.