Philippines: Farmers race to keep up with global 'ube' craze

Philippines: Farmers race to keep up with global 'ube' craze June 10, 2026On a recent road trip home to Germany, cafe owner April Schoengen spotted a purple pastry at a gas station bakery. "It was ube, just as I suspected," she said, surprised at finding a Filipino-flavored dessert at a European gas station. Schoengen sells ube-flavored cakes and drinks at her Filipino-themed cafe, "Ube de Oro" in Bonn. When she opened two years ago, the cafe catered to a mostly Filipino clientele. Now, she's seeing more and more people from different backgrounds come in, intrigued by the lilac-colored treats. What is ube? When unfamiliar diners inquire about ube, she shows them a poster summarizing the crop's origins and cultural significance. Ube (pronounced oo-beh), also called the purple yam, is a naturally vibrant purple root crop from the Philippines. Subtly sweet and nutty, ube is typically served as jam, ice cream or dessert during festivities in the Philippines. For many indigenous communities, the tuber is a staple food and major source of protein, carbohydrates and antioxidants, according to Cheryl Marie Natividad-Caballero, Philippine agricultureundersecretary for high value crops. Elsewhere, ube provides purple cold foam sitting on top of an iced macchiato at cafes. It is also the ingredient that's making pancakes and waffles more vibrant and pretty on Instagram. Just like the ubiquitous matcha powder, ube is now found at cafes, bakeries and restaurants around the world. Ube exports from Philippines slowing The crop has been so popular that it has been dubbed by the Philippines' trade department as a "star export." In 2025, the Philippines shipped 1.7 metric tons or $2.9 million (€2.57 million) worth of ube products (extracts, powders) abroad, with the bulk of the share going to the United States. This figure is 20% higher than the previous year. Despite the surge in popularity, the Philippines' production of ube has steadily slowed down. From a total harvest of over 30,000 metric tons in 2006, the Philippine Statistics Authority noted that only 12,400 metric tons of ube were produced in 2025. One of the hurdles that farmers are facing when it comes to ube production is the lack of planting materials, according to Grace Backian, director of the Northern Philippine Root Crops Research & Training Center. The research institution based in Benguet, north of Manila, is dedicated to innovating farming practices for root crops through research and training of farmers. "Since the foreign demand for ube has risen, the center has also received more requests for seedlings for expanding farmlands for ube," Backian told DW. Among those looking for seedlings are indigenous farmers from the provinces of Pampanga and Tarlac in Central Luzon. Global craving pressures ube growers Christopher Gomez, who works with farmers in processing and distributing ube, said that growers used to be able to keep a portion of their harvests to replant for the next season. However, the global craving for ube has driven farmers to sell all their produce and instead ask for seedlings from other suppliers and the local government. "The potential farmlands here are expansive, but we barely have any seedlings. We have tried to ask from the government but we did not get any, and now we are receiving some materials from a nongovernmental organization," Gomez said. The farmer group also received requests from other regions and even growers from Indonesia for planting materials. "We don't want to export raw materials, only processed ube like powder and extracts because we want to maintain the farming here," Gomez told DW. Before the ube craze, farmers harvested the root crops from their farms up in the mountains and sold the harvest at local markets, usually at a loss of 20 pesos ($0.33/€0.28) per kilogram. Gomez has been directly buying ube from the farmers at the now standard farmgate price of 80 pesos per kilogram. Orders have also risen from 300 kilograms to 30 tons. Can ube farmers keep up with demand? To keep up with the demands of ube while keeping the production sustainable, Backian stressed the need for local greenhouses where farmers can nurture quality seedlings and maintain the supply within the locality. Growers also need to receive training to learn innovative ways of planting tubers. "The government should provide funding for these greenhouses and for the training as well," Backian said, noting that farmers will be discouraged from growing ube if they do not have the materials. Philippine Agriculture Undersecretary for High Value Crops Natividad-Caballero said that the department is working to maintain the availability of ube planting materials through distribution from the regional research stations to local governments. While ube is not a sensitive crop that can grow on different terrains, Backian said that the crop thrives on rolling areas where the soil gets drained. This means that farming ube is labor-intensive, as tilling needs to be manual. Growing ube also requires patience, as the crop takes around nine months to yield, granted that it survives typhoons that often hit the tropical country. Backian observed that ube remains a secondary crop, as farmers prefer to grow cash crops like corn, which only takes three months to mature, and yields immediate income for farmers. "That is also one of the challenges in the production. It's very hard to farm ube upland. But farmers are very resilient. As long as they see the benefit of going into that venture, they will continue planting," Backian said. Edited by: Wesley Rahn