From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 1, March 2003.

The Royal Coffee brand, which is a household name in Tonga, will be launched in Sydney, Australia, in March and there are plans to reach other export markets.

The brand belongs to South Seas Coffee, a family business that is owned by Paul and Tafolosa Karalus. Paul predicts that by the end of this year, the Royal Coffee will be a $1 million pa‘anga industry. “Since the coffee project was privatised in 1999 it has come alive. It emerged from being dead to alive.”

Paul said that their marketing strategy was to expand slowly, “next year we will add on New Zealand and Japan, and in 2005 we will move on to Europe. Our intention is to export only roasted coffee so we can maintain the brand name and also have people recognise the coffee as a finished product from Tonga.”

French project

The Coffee project was funded and developed by the French Government in co-operation with the Tongan Ministry of Agriculture in the 1990s. When the French government decided in 1999 to end its assistance to the development of the coffee project, Paul put in a bid to government to buy all the equipment that had been installed for the processing of coffee. His bid was accepted, and with the initial investment of $5000 Paul bought some vats, a pulping machine, a roaster, a grinder and some other small items, and then set out to develop the coffee industry.

Paul said that when SSC took over the coffee project from the Ministry of Agriculture in 1999 there were about 40 coffee growers in the whole of Tonga with 21,000 trees, “but today there are 95,000 trees.” Paul believed that the reason behind the success of the industry was because, “we have privatised and commercialised the industry, and I was prepared to take the risk and I also have the patience to wait three to four years before I get a return on my money that I had invested.”

Coffee cherries

The growth in production is also very significance since Paul and SSC took over the project. In 2000 they produced only 1000 kg of roasted coffee. In 2001 the yield went up to 21,000kg of cherry enough to produce 2,400kg of roasted coffee. In 2002 the harvest was 37,000kg of cherry, enough to produce 4000kg of roasted coffee. “This year we are targeting 100,000kg of cherry and 11,000kg of roasted coffee. For 2004 we are hoping for 35,000 to 40,000kgs of roasted coffee, valued at about $1 million pa‘anga.”

Paul said that this year 6,000kg would be exported to Sydney and 5,000kg kept for consumption on the local market.

Tonga imports over 27,000kg of coffee annually. “The great thing about coffee is that most of the input is local. The only imports are fertiliser, and electricity and gas for processing and the packaging. The rest of the money stays in Tonga.”

Growers profit

Paul estimated that it cost $4 to plant one coffee tree, “so an acre with 1500 plants will cost $6000 to develop and the harvesting will start on the third year.” Paul said that they were planting only the Arabica variety of coffee, “It grows just over two metres high, it is easy to harvest and it is disease and drought resistant, and it is also high yielding. We claim our coffee to be number two in the world to the Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, but we aim to equal that once we have sufficient resources.”

Paul said that SSC also offered an assistance package to growers and so far they have assisted with the growing of 65,000 trees. “We retain the ownership of the trees until they are paid for and the grower/landowner then takes over the ownership.

“We provide the finance, the plants as well as the expertise and the actual work. Then once we start harvesting we get back the money we had invested and at the same time the owner also gets his return. We have a contract with the people we fund.”

Paul explained that one acre of coffee when in full harvest can produce coffee valued at $10,000 pa‘anga, “and 40 per cent of this is net profit after meeting harvesting and other costs. I reckon that is really good money. Furthermore a planter can continue harvesting up to 30 years from the same plant.”