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Over 85% of PNG coffee is grown by subsistence farmers. Each family grows between 100-1000 trees depending on the area of land they own, how many food gardens they need and how much land is resting. Unlike other coffee-growing countries, most PNG coffee is not grown in plantations employing workers.
These smallholder growers earn the least share of income from coffee. They receive only 2-3% of the price the consumer pays even though they have done over 70% of the work in the coffee production chain. Village Growers Coffee aims to turn around that injustice by giving growers a 15-20% return. As our consumer support increases the growers’ income will increase and we will also have a range of village development projects.
Our values are SUSTAINABILITY, TRANSPARENCY and JUSTICE
Village Growers’ Coffee was established by PNG local, Pana Wiya, who grew up in a coffee-growing village. The money his father earned from the family’s 300 trees had to pay for school fees and all their other expenses.
Coffee remains an important part of village life today, however, because of rising living costs and low coffee revenues, most coffee growers struggle to pay for basic goods and services and remain trapped in poverty.
We aim to incentivise growers to produce more and higher quality coffee, inviting them to become a valued part of the fair trade process.
We also aim to create opportunities for other small business ventures like poultry, piggeries, vegetable growing and other service businesses, resulting in a more sustainable and purposeful life in the village.
I come from Baiyer River in the Western Highlands of PNG. After graduating from university in Lae, I was an officer in the PNG Defence Force, Engineer Battalion. Since migrating to Australia in 1980, I worked in the field of engineering with BHP and Baulderstone Hornibrook and for approximately five years with a mining company that took me to the USA for two years. I resigned in 1992 because I could not be part of a system that left the needs of the people, the rightful resource owners, on the bottom for the scraps. I’ve since been doing retail in Sydney and Melbourne to support my family here and those in PNG with school fees, family/cultural obligations and training of Christian leaders through university ministries for the next generation.
I have the heart to make a difference for those I see in the world being unfairly treated. I live for justice where there is injustice. I strongly believe in accountability and transparency, and in thinking of the needs of future generations and passing onto them opportunities that can sustain their lives.
Pana Wiya
Director
Get coffee beans sourced from farmers in Papua New Guinea.
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