Coffee under the fair trade radar

The Fair Trade organization has come to Papua New Guinea and doing very well. This organization looks at a lot of cash crops such cocoa, copra, coffee, sugar cane, etc. Fair Trade has certified few coffee and cocoa companies and co-operative societies of Papua New Guinea. They meet certain requirement and standards which Fair Trade has set. Fair Trade independently audit organizations and verify their conformity with the Fair-trade Standards. Their certification process ensures that economic, social and environmental standards are met in the production of (agricultural) products and is aimed at both producers and traders. It also ensures that producers receive a Fair-trade Minimum Price and Premium.

 

Why fair-trade certification?

The following are some reasons for their certifications. (1) They ensure credibility of Fair trade labeling towards Customers; (2) Credibility is one of the big selling points of Fair trade (3) Manage Risks for Producers and Traders 3 (i) Reputational Risk: Co-Branding (ii) Market Risk: Reliable Framework. According to the meeting in Madang in July 2011 a triangle was shown how the Fair Trade certificate is earned. At the top (Apex) of the triangle is the Certification, the left hand-side is development and the right-hand side is the secure supply. This secures the certification. Many organizations which are certified are enjoying the premium prices for the Fair Trade. A big player is a cocoa cooperative in Wewak, East Sepik Province.

Pulping coffee manually

The love and desire of Coffee is highly cherished in nearly all of the remotest parts of Papua New Guinea where coffee is grown as a cash crop. Coffee is harvested and delivered either to the village or where small coffee plot owners dwell. The freshly harvested cherries are manually pulped. It is an activity the whole family carry out. The people form either a circle or a rectangle around the cherry mount and they pulp as many cherries as they can. One such place is a village in Obura-Wanenare electorate in Eastern Highlands Province as shown in the image.

This is not unique to Obura-Wanenare only. Kumukio in Sialum local level government, Morobe Province also faces the similar scenario. A portable drum pulper costs approximately PGK800.00 (US$320.00). This vital piece of equipment is unaffordable to this people. Manual and machine pulping do the same quality of work. However, in terms of rate which is measured as mass per unit of time indicates manual pulping as the slowest (at the snail speed). The average is 5 kilograms per hour whereas machine pulping does 60 kilograms in one hour. Machine is highly recommended because it is twelve time efficient. The political leadership of Papua New Guinea should realize that coffee is one cash crop that helps the remote people’s cash economy. Hence, more funds and resources should be concentrated on this vital cash crop in terms of purchasing portable coffee machines.