In November, I was invited by PromPeru to attend FiCafe coffee expo in Puno. I flew into Lima, before flying up to Juliaca, and driving 2 hours to Puno. Puno is situation 4000 meters above sea level, and I certainly felt the affects of the altitude as soon as I arrived. The group was made up of 30+ people from 13 countries, and while I didn’t know anyone going into the trip, I met lots of great people on the first day.
Day One: We visited a local mill called Cecovasa which processes around 19T of parchment a day from 7 local cooperatives. They also roast ‘espresso dark roast’ for local supply (around 13T/year).
Day Two: We participated in a cupping session with producer associations from 12 regions: Amazonas, Apurimac, Ayacucho, Cajamarca, Cusco, Huanuco, Junin, Lima, Pasco, Piura, Puno, and San Martin. That night we attended a welcome dinner hosted by the Governor of Puno.
Day Three: We had the business round with representatives from 61 companies and producer associations from the 12 regions participated in the round. There were 441 business meetings with coffee buyers from Germany, Argentina, Australia, Chile, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Taiwan. I had 18 meetings over 9 hours, thankfully a translator helped out. It was amazing to meet so many producers and cooperative representatives.
Day Four: Travel day from Puno, to Lima, before boarding a flight to Ayacucho.
Day Five: We drove from Ayacucho further north into VREAM (Valley of the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro rivers) which took around 6 hours. The drive was pretty treacherous with very windy roads high up in the mountains. We arrived in Pinchari around 7pm and were very ready for bed!
Day Six: Started early as we had a busy day ahead visiting cooperatives and farms. First stop was to Sivia to visit a cooperative called Quinoaco, which was founded in 1970. Their warehouses were taken over by the military for the 1980’s due to issues in the area, before starting back in 1993. Their mix is currently 80% cacao and 20% coffee, due to a Roya outbreak in the coffee farms a few years back. We cupped some coffee with the team, before getting back in the car to go further into the jungle to a farm.
The group: Danny (JBL), Hamish (Coffee Partners), Alanah (Raglan Roast) Alice (JBL), Tom (Hawthorne), Damon (Maven), Natalia (Sucden Colombia)
What a whirlwind trip of Colombia! We took 8 flights in 7 days and visited 7 cities/towns. While it was jam packed, it was the best way to see as much as we could of this vibrant and beautiful country. The team at Sucden Colombia were the most amazing hosts, and they had planned the trip so well. We saw a mix of cooperatives, large farms, small family farms, traditional and experimental techniques, fermentation techniques and cupped some great coffee! We had a very patient translator, Davide, and tour guides/Colombian coffee experts Paulina, Angie and Eleazar. A big thanks to Andres and Pablo for allowing us this incredible opportunity.
Day One: Exploring Bogota
Day Two: 6am flight to Nevia, drive from Nevia to Timana, farm #1 visit, farm #2 visit, drive from Timana to Garzon
Today we visited Finca Las Brias, owned by Juan and his family
Altitude: 1600masl
Size: 6 hectares of coffee trees
Varietals grown: Colombia, Caturra
Day Three: Drive from Garzon to La Plata, farm #3 visit, drive from La Plata to Nevia, flight to Bogota
Today we visited La Esmeralda, owned by Carlos and Lidia Campos, who bought the 25yr old farm farm 3 years ago
Altitude: 1600masl
Size: 23 hectares, 17 of that are coffee trees
Varietals grown: Pink Bourbon, Colombia, Yellow Bourbon
Day Four: 6am flight to Armenia, Sucden mill visit, farm #4 visit, drive to Pereira
The Sucden mill in Armenia processes 30,000 bags of coffee per month, ready for export
Farm Campo Hermoso – owned by Edwin Norena
Size: 25 Hectares
Varietals: Pink Bourbon, Colombia, Yellow Bourbon, Geisha
Process: Uses hops, dried fruit and extended fermentation, drying for 9-11 days
Day Five: Farm #5 visit, flight to Bogota, final dinner with the group
Chicago Farm
Size: 150 hectares of coffee
Varietals: Colombia, Catimor – all conventional varieties
19th April 2023
On the 30th of March, Fairtrade released a statement confirming the increase in the Fairtrade Minimum Price and the Organic Differential for coffee.
The following increases have been set out for any coffee contracts agreed upon from the 1st of August 2023:
This price increase is the first since 2011, as a result of a 6 month Coffee Price Review.
The figures were chosen using data from a 2022 Cost of Production study across many producing origins and consultations with different stakeholders across the supply chain. The data is on the Fairtrade website and it’s fascinating to see the large differences between certain countries with regard to their cost of production, and how organic coffee production impacts this. A big takeaway is that the cost of production for organic coffee is much higher than conventional coffee and this needs to be recognised more.
What does this mean in c/lb terms?
For Washed Arabica coffees, currently, the minimum price is $1.40/lb, and if you add the Fairtrade premium of $.20/lb, you get a total of $1.60/lb. If the coffee is Organic, you get the same price plus the Organic premium of $.30/lb, resulting in a total of $1.90/lb.
The minimum price will increase by 26%, reaching $1.80/lb; once the Fairtrade premium of $.20/lb is added, the total will be $2.00/lb; and if the coffee is Organic, $.40/lb will be added as this premium is also increasing, resulting in a total of $2.40/lb.
The minimum price applies if the C Market is $1.80 or lower. If the C Market is higher than $1.80, the contract becomes an “open price” to be fixed, and that’s when differentials or premiums are applied (+$.20 +$.40) on top of the prevailing country or quality differentials.
This price increase is the first since 2011, the result of a 6-month Coffee Price Review. Production costs have increased over the past 12 years; Costs of fertiliser, fuel (including for milling processes), logistics, and labour costs. For organic producers, higher labour needs required to follow organic farming methods contribute to higher production cost. In addition, there are costs to maintain organic certification and meet the organic requirements of importing countries.
Since the announcement, Cooperatives are offering a mixture of coffee priced against the current Fairtrade pricing structure and coffee that is priced against the new Fairtrade pricing structure. We expect increased demand for Fairtrade contracts to be agreed before August and we also expect some cooperatives to hold back offers till then so they can benefit from the higher pricing structure.
Please get in touch with your account manager if you would like any further information on this.
Here are some Q&A’s from Fairtrade:
John Burton Ltd is committed to conducting our business in an ethical, sustainable and socially responsible manner.
This is for the benefit of all of our stakeholders, our colleges, our suppliers, our customers and our partners. We endeavour to have accountability and clear traceability throughout the coffee journey – from the farm to your door.
We have long-term relationships with our suppliers. We choose suppliers who also feel the same way, in addition to delivering a great product, they always strive to ensure strong ethical, sustainable and socially responsible guidelines.
We support sustainability with our grower partners offering Fairtrade, Organic and Rainforest Alliance certified coffee. These certifications help support these farms to meet the Fairtrade ethical standards, as well as give certainty to our roaster customers here in NZ who are Fairtrade certified.
Relationships are the cornerstone of the John Burton business; with over 30 years’ of experience, we utilise direct trade with specific farms and larger trading houses. This involves direct feedback to the farms, regular origin trips where we can each share our knowledge and learnings to ensure we are sourcing beans of the highest quality.
During Fairtrade Fortnight (August 2–15, 2019), JBL were lucky enough to host Mitchell Ricky in NZ.
Mitchell is a third generation coffee farmer and member from the Highland Organic Agricultural Cooperative (HOAC) based in the Okapa region of Papua New Guinea. As well as growing coffee, Mitchell studied a Bachelor of Commerce in the University of Technology in Lae and is now working for Coffee Connections (HOAC’s export partner) in their coffee logistics and export team. At 28 years old, he represents the next generation of coffee farmers benefiting from the long term impacts of Fairtrade in the community.
John Burton’s have had a long standing relationship with the HOAC, purchasing coffee from them since 2001 when they were first founded.
During his presentation, Mitchell spoke about how much the Fairtrade Premiums (a dollar value paid over and above the Fairtrade price) mean to his community. Using these premiums, they are able to improve the social, economic and environmental conditions of their community. They have bought items, such as depulpers (removes the cherry from the bean), to improve the coffee quality, and enabled their community to have access to fresh water.
‘Here you have 5 taps in one house, at home we have 5 houses to one tap’. Mitchell Ricky
He also spoke about the struggles HOAC are facing due to the changing climate. The unpredictability of harvest times is creating uncertainty and forcing families to decide whether they harvest their cash crop (produced for its commercial value rather than for use by the grower) or harvest the food they grow in their gardens to feed their families.
One of the major concerns for the coffee growers, and the local communities in the area around HOAC, is poor road access, making it difficult for them to export their coffee to Goroka. To address this problem, HOAC used a proportion of their Fairtrade premium to improve the local roads. This has helped improve their access to market and increase business for small coffee farmers. The maintenance of the roads is done by local residents that live alongside and near to the roads, providing them with paid work.
By partnering with Fairtrade, we will continue to put farmers on the world map.
A visit to Lae and Unen Choit Cooperative, Morobe district
By Henrik Rylev – August 2018
On August 7th 2018 I left for PNG to visit Unen Choit, a coffee cooperative situated in the Morobe district, and Niugini Coffee Tea and Spice (NGCS), an exported based in Lae. This trip was organized by Mike Murphy, MD of Kōkako Organic Coffee Roasters, and we were also joined by Sam McTavish, Kōkako Head Roaster, and Josh Griggs, photographer. The timing of this trip worked in perfectly with John Burton Ltd, as we also had plans to visit since we started buying their Fairtrade Organic coffee in 2017.
While in PNG, we will be staying in the village of Wasu. Here, they have recently built a wharf, to load a barge with the collected coffee parchment to move it to Lae to be processed.
Lae
Our first meeting was with Mr Gabriel Iso (Fair Trade PNG) to go over the details for the visit, and a quick meet-up with Debborah Yassah who has been working on an exciting Cascara project, before going to NGCS’s headquarters to meet up with Anton Goonetilleke, an old friend of John’s. He is a well-known name in sourcing and producing top quality coffees in PNG and Indonesia. Anton greeted us with a cupping of coffees and later a visit to their mill. Great to catch up with him again as I last met him on a trip with John to Sumatra back in 2016. After spending half a day at NGCS we headed off to meet with Terry Molock, head of Unen Choit Coop, at their small office. Sam and Mike had plans to spend the afternoon teaching Molock’s team how to use their newly purchased sample roaster, so I set off to explore Lae.
Travelling to Wasu
After a 4 am wake up call, and a few hours of waiting around, we boarded the plane to Wasu. It was a clear day and we had a fantastic 45 min flight through the mountains and landed on what could be described as their extended soccer field.
Arriving in Wasu
We were greeted by the local community with a sing sing in traditional attire of loin cloths, grass skirts, beads on strings and a dead bird of paradise on their head . We followed the procession through the village, being joined by various community groups along the way, until we reached the meeting place in the main square. A stage had been built for us to sit on while speeches and gift-giving took place. It was a very humbling and emotional time, as you know that it has taken days to make the beautiful gifts; handmade Bilums (woven hand/carry bags) flower leis and necklaces. I was honored to also receive a Bilum and 2 necklaces by a female farmer and her child. Three hours later, it was time to see our sleeping arrangements; newly built offices on top of a storage place to be our rooms kitted out with a thin mattress and an outdoor deck with a table and chairs, where we would have our meals.
An hour after settling in, we met up with 100 or so farmers, some who had traveled for miles, for a Q&A session. There were some great questions asked and it was nice to relay to the farmers where their coffee ends up in New Zealand. This session took a few hours, with the temperature sitting close to 30 degrees, we were ready to go a see where we could have a cold shower ‘Wasu style’. We walked through native palm trees and bush until we reached a river mouth by the beach; Men on one side and women to the other. This was probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever had a “shower/bath”. The beach was pristine, with white sand and palm trees, and the water was clean and cool. Amazing! We could have spent hours there, but wanted to see their newly built wharf where they load the coffee in parchment for the 2 day boat ride to Lae. The sun was setting while dinner was being prepared; rice with corned beef and vegetable leaves and boiled potatoes. Beautifully prepared and very tasty. It got dark at about 7 pm, so after some conversations about the day’s events and preparing for tomorrows journey into the mountains, we hit the sack at 8 pm.
The roosters started at about 3 am, and not long after the dogs and pigs joined in, and at 5 am everyone was up looking forward to the sunrise. After our breakfast, prepared by a crew of 5 fantastic women, we jumped into the good old trusted Toyota land cruiser troop carrier and off on our extremely bumpy ride. With us was Gabriel Iso, Daniel from CIC (Coffee institution Corporation of PNG), Molock, two other guys from the cooperative, and our fantastic driver. After about an hour’s drive , we arrived at the first village and group called Satop. We were given another traditional welcoming, with speeches and gift exchanges, and a warrior’s head piece with feathers to wear. After this ceremony, we got on with the meeting and tour of their facilities.
We got to Gilang early afternoon where we officially opened their brand new warehouse, courtesy of the Fair Trade premium. After this, we went for a long walk through the mountains, to where their coffee trees are situated. They also had their hand pulper station and fermentation shed/hut in that area. We discussed how their coffee trees were perhaps 30 to 40 years’ old, meaning increased maintenance to keep them going, and less overall yield (usually meaning less money earnt).
Coffee Weighing Station Pulper
After another one and a half hours’ drive, we arrived at our final stop for the day. Diram village is about 2000 meters above sea level, so quite refreshing. We were treated to another spectacular cultural dance and singing fest, with some amazing head pieces worn by the male dancers.
The next morning we were woken up at 4:30am to go down to the local waterfall for a very cold and refreshing wash in the dark, thankfully assisted by Molock and a local with a torch. As we were high up in the mountains, we didn’t really start to warm up until the sun was beaming down on us.
The wharf
We devoured a standard breakfast of rice, boiled potatoes/kumara and greenery, served by our trusted team of ladies at 6 am, and afterwards we went to see the plantations around the area. We created quite a stir with some of the locals who hadn’t had much interaction with the “pale race”, so there was a lot of starring, giggling and the odd touch on our arm as we were walking. Shortly after setting off, we had amassed an entourage of 50 or so local kids following in our footsteps. We spoke to a good 500 people, which was the biggest gathering I have ever seen in PNG. We partook in a lively Q and A session, before it got a bit rowdy and sounded like a passionate debate in various dialects – our cue to leave. We got out stuff and headed back towards Wasu – A trip through some spectacular mountain ranges, but on the same dodgy road, and arrived in Wasu after 5 hours’ drive feeling battered and bruised.
As the sun rose, we had breakfast and Mike’s great coffee; the highlight of every morning. After breakfast, we set off to visit the cooperative’s newly installed washing station and wet mill. A quick change of plans lead us to a Q and A with local farmers instead. Perhaps the Toyota needed some attention? We presented our learnings and experiences from throughout our travels within the the Unen Choit Cooperative, and answered various Farmer’s questions. After lunch, we boarded the trusty Toyota, and 30 minutes later we arrived to a surprise welcoming ceremony. Lots of singing, speeches, prayers and gift exchanges (never go anywhere in PNG without a little something in the bag). Unfortunately, there were some issues with the water pressure on the wet mill so it couldn’t operate properly, but as we had all seen one in action before, it was no big deal. Overall, it was an impressive place with a good infrastructure; Will Valdere from Fairtrade ANZ has been instrumental in setting it up.
After a 5 am start and a quick breakfast, it was off to the airfield. Everyone had gathered outside where we were staying, somehow there were double the amount of people, to give us hugs, handshakes and high fives, as well as old ladies crying and clicking their tongues (I still do not know what means). We made our way to the airfield quickly as we were told that the plane only comes in occasionally so you don’t want to miss it. We checked in, were weighed up on the scales, and the waiting game began. After an hour we heard a plane coming in, followed by the sound of it turning around as it was too cloudy. At 11.30 the finally plane arrived. The cloud cover had lifted so it was able to land. We had an amazing flight back through the mountains and our pilot –who happened to be a young Waikato lad- guided us safely through to Lae airport.
Back in Lae
On our last morning we headed to NGCS to meet Anton and his staff for cupping and evaluation of the various coffees we had collected while on the trip. While Sam was roasting up the samples, Mike and an Unen Choit representative were interviewed for national TV and newspapers. I went with Anton to meet up with one of our shipping companies (Swire) at the port of Lae to have a brief overlook of their organisation.
After lunch, we had the opportunity to cup and help identify potential microlot coffee’s – hopefully these will one day be available!
We soon found out that Molock and Daniel did not make the next plane, so they had to catch boat to the nearest city, and then drive another 5-7 hours, so we would not be seeing them before we had to leave. That put a dampener to the end of the trip and showed us how difficult transport is in PNG and how remote some of these places are. Mr. John Nightingale who is the owner of NGCS kindly took us out for dinner to the famous Lae Yacht club. We were treated to some amazing steaks and side dishes.
Final Words
Sitting on the plane home, going over this trip, I can only say that this was -again- a very productive trip. Always helps when you are in very good company and your hosts are so fantastic. I can’t stop thinking about how isolated these guys in the Unen Choit Coop are and for some reason still manages to get us this fantastic coffee with the help of the exporter and processor Niugini Coffee Tea and Spice. Some of the places we visited are so much off the beaten track and where it can take days for some of these growers to get their parchment to Wasu and yet there’s no complaints and only smiles, happiness and friendliness when visiting. Something I think we all could learn a lot from in our -so to speak- materialistic life, compared to this unique and beautiful part of the world where I was fortunate enough to visit and be welcomed into.
Until next time.
Photos by Henrik Rylev and Josh Griggs
In late 2017, JBL traveled to Sumatra to meet with the suppliers and Fairtrade cooperatives that we buy from.
Bean Scene wrote an article about it:
On Monday the 9th of October we were honoured to have a visit from Molock Terry, the manager of a Fairtrade Organic Cooperative we work with. His cooperative, Unen Choit, is in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. Located in an isolated corner of the province, the only way to reach Unen Choit is by air or sea. They produce 6 containers of coffee a year and we buy 1 of them. It was a real eye opening and interesting experience hearing about coffee production in PNG. They have to walk 3 hrs to access drinking water and about the same to take each bag of coffee to be collected.
