SOME Fijians may have gold mines behind their homes without realising it, according to a representative from Ona Coffee Pte Ltd.
Businesswoman Noleen Billings said many properties in Fiji already have coffee growing wild and residents may not even recognise it.
“Some of you have coffee plants, and you don’t even know it because it’s sweet when it’s ripe, since it’s a fruit, people think it’s something else, but that’s the gold you’ve been sitting on all these years,” she said while speaking at the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit in Labasa yesterday.
Ms Billings said coffee was not a new crop in Fiji.
“Coffee has been discovered growing naturally in several parts of the country, including Nadarivatu, where it was found at 800 metres above sea level, as well as Wainunu and Taveuni.”
She said Fiji once had large-scale coffee farming, but like other commodities such as cotton and copper, the market eventually declined.
Now, with renewed interest and better understanding of speciality coffee markets, she believes it’s time to bring it back.
“We’re finding coffee all over Fiji,” she said.
With wild Liberica coffee already growing in Fiji’s highlands and climate change putting pressure on traditional coffee-growing regions like Brazil, where rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall were affecting crops, Ms Billings said Fiji could play a key role in the future of the global coffee industry.
“Arabica coffee is phasing out, but here in Fiji, we have the perfect climate and location,” she said.
Ms Billings said experts were surprised to find the Liberica coffee is growing in Fiji.
“They couldn’t get decent coffee elsewhere, but when they looked at the wild coffee growing in Fiji, it turned out to be the very coffee they’ve been promoting since 2010, the Liberica coffee.”
She said this discovery is remarkable, considering Liberica was now being seen as a future-proof variety.
“Tell me how our ancestors knew Liberica would become the preferred coffee today.”
During product testing, she said they initially struggled with chocolate flavour, but samples of Liberica coffee from across Fiji proved to be exceptional.
“It has everything you need in high-quality coffee and more. It’s fruity, rare, and unique to Fiji.”
The company now wants to work closely with farmers, especially those in the mountainous regions, to scale up production.
She said this variety of coffee can be grown on slopes and does not require clear-cutting forests.
“We often go into the mountains and chop everything down, but coffee loves shade. About 50 per cent shade is ideal. All you need to do is thin the forest and plant among the trees.”
Apart from planting coffee, she said farmers should plant cocoa, turmeric, ginger, yams, and even fruit.
“Since coffee harvesting is seasonal, farmers can earn income from other crops in between,” Ms Billings said.
Ona Coffee is currently working with Government and local farmers to revive the industry and identify more locations with potential for coffee farming.
