Arabica Coffee Beans Found at Abaca Village
Arabica coffee beans, known for its quality and being one of the most expensive coffee, was discovered at Abaca Village.
It was discovered by the village’s coffee project manager, Isaia Vuda, two years ago. This could be a game changer for the Lautoka-based village.
Mr Vuda, who handles all processes from the planting to the harvesting of the coffee, said the coffee plants were discovered in the forests and something the villagers were not aware about was that it could generate a lot of income for them.
“There were many researches that I did, particularly on the land, there are coffee plants that are growing around here which they (the villagers) do not know about, these villagers do not know that the resources they have is expensive,” he said.
“We are the first village in Fiji to plant this. We have lodged a project where we initially market our coffee to the tourists.
“This project started two years ago. We uprooted these coffee seedlings from the forest and replanted nearby so that it will be easy for harvesting.”
He said a friend from the Fiji Coffee Group examined the coffee beans and confirmed that they were the Arabica and Alabaster coffee beans.
“We want other provinces in Fiji to know that they have these plants, near them which can be a source of good income to them,” he said.
“We have a pulpy machine for the process of this product. The wet process product we sell it for $20 to $25 for a 10 liter bucket, for the dry process we sell it for $47 to $60 a kilo.
“We wanted to plant 10,000 plants but just for one plant it takes you 60 years to harvest from it and that one plant can give you $5000 or $10,000 a year.”
Coffee expert and the Sales and Training Manager for Coffee and Tea at Yees Cold Storage, Laite Cavalevu said the Arabica coffee beans were more of the expensive type compared to the Alabaster. Ms Cavalevu said the Arabica and Alabaster coffee could be a huge potential for the village and the country.
“The Arabica is hard to find and it is more of the expensive coffee, they grow in the higher altitude of places and they need more care when looked after because they are prone to insects,” she said.
“Coffee beans are like gold. We always make sure that the farmers are getting what they deserve.”