LUKE Fryett is quite passionate about doing his bit to help the community. And it’s no wonder he’s built a close relationship with some of the villagers up Valley Rd in Sigatoka.
Through his business, Bula Coffee, Luke has seen many benefits trickle down to grassroots level. And he’s witnessed first-hand the positive developments that can take place by simply empowering people and providing them with the proper tools to progress their lives and that of the community they live in.
Originally from New Zealand, Luke first came to Fiji on holiday in 1993. His second visit was around 2006-2007 when his family won a holiday trip to Fiji.
“I met some friends and they took me up to the hot water sprints, way up in the valley past Keiyasi. We wanted to do something for the community so we asked if there was anything they wanted in the village, and they told us they would really like a hall,” Luke shared at the Bula Coffee factory in Sigatoka.
“We said we’d help them fund the hall if they put in the manpower to build it. We felt it was important that it came from them and that they drove the project, not us. And they were pleased with the hall when it was completed.”
It was around this time they came across coffee trees in the valley and saw mass potential to turn local coffee into a competitive product on the market.
To turn this venture into a success, he knew it was important to work closely with the local community, to empower them to see the value in a simple coffee tree growing wild in the bush.
“We had a cafe in New Zealand so we were working on the other side of coffee but it seemed like a good thing because everybody loves coffee,” he said.
“I grew up on an organic kiwi fruit farm so I kind of mixed the two together — the farming side and coffee side. The idea for Fijian-grown Bula Coffee kind of grew from there.
“We sent out samples to a duty-free shop and they loved it. We had one little roaster that could do one bag at a time so we stayed at the village and roasted 24 hours that week to get their order done and when it was done, they liked it.
“We were a bit nervous to start with. We had to ship the beans to New Zealand for roasting and to send back. It ended up being too costly.”
Around 2011-2012, they started their coffee business collaboration with one village and soon neighbouring villages caught on and started supplying coffee beans.
“For us, it’s not so much about coffee. It could be anything but we love working with coffee. It’s also about helping villagers get an income from something they’ve already got,” Luke said.
“There’s a lot of aid money that is sometimes not well distributed. A lot of people are looking for a handout and not a hand down. They don’t want just money thrown at them.
“They want to be part of the development knowing they’ve earned the money themselves. These villagers go out and pick coffee, and when they receive their money, they know they’ve done the work and deserve it, which is why we made sure when we did the coffee business, we paid directly to the people who picked it rather than paying one person to distribute it.”
There are four people working for Bula Coffee but staff numbers usually go up to eight during the harvesting period.
