Kitchen table coffee is helping women in remote Papua.
Papua is the largest province of Indonesia. It’s the most sparsely populated and most ethnically and culturally diverse. It is also very poor; over 40 per cent of people live below the poverty line – many of them indigenous Papuans. And with their traditional low status in society, indigenous women are disproportionately affected by poverty.
The tense political situation in the country makes access in and out of the region difficult and limits opportunities for economic growth. It’s difficult for Westerners to visit for business purposes, which
makes contributing to a development programme there particularly challenging.
But Michael Riach, a member of our programme team, has just returned from a field visit to Nabire on Papua’s north coast – the first time in over two years that a Kiwi from Oxfam New Zealand has been allowed to enter the region. He brought back with him some samples of the first Papuan organic coffee from our partner Papua Arabic Marketing Enterprise (PAME).
Coffee from women
Papua’s fertile soils are perfect for growing premium arabica coffee. Deep in the remote, mountainous valleys, PAME trains growers in sustainable methods of cultivating and harvesting high-quality, organic Arabica beans. PAME aim to make the local coffee industry self-sufficient, self-managed and sustainable, without the use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides.
Many Indonesian coffee firms market their coffee as Papuan because it evokes a vision of exotic rainforest, distance and difference. Mostly these claims to be Papuan are tenuous at best. But the sample brought into Oxfam’s office is the genuine article. It’s called Kopi Mace, and translates as ‘coffee from women’. Veni Tanati, a local Papuan, and current director of PAME explains: “Kopi Mace, celebrates the fact that over 60 per cent of our coffee growers are women. By ensuring the growers get a fairer price for all their hard work, we’re seeing real improvements in people’s basic rights, the status of women and the standard of living for many families.”
Small beginnings
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In blind taste tests comparing Kopi Mace to Indonesian coffe and leading brand instant varieties, Kopi Maci scored ten out of ten. |
Although they bring jobs and much-needed income to indigenous communities, PAME isn’t going to worry Starbucks just yet. PAME’s coffee is a cottage industry run from a humble building and kitchen table, with two roasters that can process just 250g of beans at a time. The grinder is rudimentary and a standard computer printer is used to make the packaging labels.
Despite its small size, PAME is having a big impact on people living in Nabire, especially women. Veni tells us: “It is very hard working on a coffee farm. And at harvest time, growers face the biggest problem of all: finding buyers. I was so sad that farmers work hard for months, and then have to sell their products at a very low price. As well as providing training and tools, Oxfam works with us on market access, adding value to the crop and securing the best possible price for the coffee beans.”
Veni and her team have been laying the foundations for Kopi Mace by launching it to politicians, civil servants bankers and businesses. They’ve already jumped through the necessary bureaucratic hoops including testing by the Department of Health. And free samples have been distributed to local movers and shakers. Once they’ve secured enough interest, PAME will increase their supply chain and look at tightening up their organic certification so that the Kopi Mace brand can be expanded and potentially marketed overseas.
Get involved
You can help more women get coffee ventures like this off the ground. And not just in Papua, but in East Timor and Papua New Guinea. It’s easy: Here’s how.
