Our speaker at Tuesday's meeting was Alice Burton, daughter of member John Burton.

 

Alice spoke to us about Coffee, and in particular coffee from Papua New Guinea and to a lesser extent Timor.

 

Alice works with John in the family company which imports and distributes Tea (Dilmah) and Coffee to roasters up and down the country. Coffee is imported in 60kg sacks (320 sacks in a 20ft container) and sold at wholesale to roasters. Coffee beans are imported from about 20 countries including PNG and Timor. The coffee from PNG is fair trade coffee which means the farmer who produces the raw product can receive a fair price for their work in growing and harvesting the coffee beans.

 

The Burton business imports about 70,000 sacks of coffee beans a year. About 220 containers or so.

 

Alice told us about coffee's journey from the Highlands of PNg to Goroka to Lae and on to its destination including NZ.  The raw product is grown by small farmers in the highlands.  The cherries which contain the coffee bean are picked on the farm and delivered to a village co-opperative, they are then processed to expose the coffee beans and then dried.  the beans are then transported to Goroka where the beans are consolidate into the 60kg bags and then transported to Lae for sea carriage. There is a lot of handling of the product through the distribution chain.

 

Alice noted that the revenue from Fair Trade assisted with;

-instalation of a community water tap which supports 2000 people, 

-provision of support to a local maternity unit,

-investment in a pulp machine to separate the coffee bean from the cherry

-construction of a local school.

 

Alice commented that bees are being used to assist with the poloisation of the coffee trees which as well as assisting with growth of the coffee cherry also creates an income stream from the honey the bees produce.