The Good Bean: Get Your Fix of Fairtrade Coffee

Growing wild in the highlands and foothills of Papua New Guinea, coffee shrubs are often referred to as ‘money trees’. One of the country’s most profitable non-mineral exports, it’s the smallholder farmers that are driving production.

Poor infrastructure and uncertainty from climate change weigh heavily on these growers, who already have less bargaining power because of their smaller yields. These are the main challenges for the Unen Choit Cooperative Society, a group of about 1750 coffee farmers who live on the Huon Peninsula.

Here, coffee cherries are hand-picked and sun-dried. From the farms, green beans are transported to Wasu, then to the port town of Lae to be hulled, graded, sorted by weight and shipped to their final destination. The complex operation is complicated by Unen Choit’s remote location: Wasu is a light plane flight or seven-hour boat ride from Port Moresby. The mountain villages where farmers grow the coffee are even more isolated.

Molock Terry, manager of the co-op and a second-generation coffee farmer himself, understands the challenges. Since leading Unen Choit to Fairtrade certification in 2016, his focus has been on improving infrastructure to enhance cash flow for farmers at the bottom of the value chain.

Backed by Fairtrade Australia New Zealand, Unen Choit’s beans are purchased at the Fairtrade Minimum Price. Calculated to meet the living wage, this usually exceeds market value. The co-op also benefits from the Fairtrade Premium, added to the purchase price, with funds reinvested into the community.

Looking after the environment has become an integral part of the job. The environment is our future.

Funding a wet coffee mill, storage sheds, transport trucks and new offices has helped substantially increase their annual out- put. It’s a huge improvement since the days when Molock’s late father farmed the land. By forward-planning and accommodating for market fluctuations, the team have invested in their future rather than living harvest to harvest.

With rigorous certification standards and strong values, co-op members often refer to Fairtrade as their ‘government’. “Our key motivation was the Fairtrade Premium, which is in line with Unen Choit’s mission to work cooperatively to develop our communities,” Molock says. “As a Fairtrade producer, we abide by good governance practices including fairness to all and especially gender equality.”

It’s life-changing for these rural communities that have traditionally relied on the land. “The coffee and agricultural industries have so much potential to help solve the ever-increasing unemployment problem in PNG,” Molock affirms.

Fairtrade’s work to help co-ops like Unen Choit invest in clean energy, protect forests and access carbon credits is also critical to the future of the industry. “Looking after the environment has become an integral part of the job,” Molock says. “The environment is our future.”