Education The Key to Quality Coffee & Increased Profits

By Gregory Love

In this age of record low prices, and an overabundance of coffee, the only way for the producers of coffee in Asia to survive is through the production of high quality coffees that will receive a premium on the worlds markets. And the key to producing quality coffee is education and training. There is a saying in the coffee world God grows perfect coffee; its what man does after that determines the quality of the coffee produced. This statement says it all. For coffee to be of a truly superior quality it must be harvested at the right moment, processed and dried in a timely and proper fashion, hulled and cleaned with care, and then stored under correct conditions. Each step in this complex process, when done incorrectly degrades the quality of the coffee, and thus reduces the price received on the world market. Today, most of the coffee produced in Asia is grown, and in most cases processed, by relatively small-landholders using traditional methods. Most of these farmers have no real understanding of either coffee quality or how to achieve it. They dont understand the needs of the buyers, or how the world market works. They dont know the methodology of producing quality coffee, or the reasons why their coffee should be produced in one way or another. This is why, so much of the coffee produced in Asia receives such low prices on the world market, and why the education and training of the farmers and people involved in the coffee business is imperative if we hope to survive under present market conditions and to establish a sustainable system, where the people involved, can obtain an income that will enable them to prosper, and continue to make the investments necessary to produce quality coffee. At Golden Triangle Eco-Resources in Myanmar we started an education and training program for farmers three years ago, and since then we have conducted training sessions in over 50 villages for more then 4,000 framers, and have published and given out training manuals in four local languages. The results speak for themselves. Before we started Myanmar coffee received differentials of minus 30 40 and over 80% of the coffee produced locally was of such a quality that it could only be marketed as Traige. Today Myanmar coffee receives prices of plus 50 and greater, and the percentage of inferior coffee, produced in areas where we have conducted our training programs, has dropped down to 15-20%

Golden Triangle Training Programs: The Golden Triangle Training Programs were established with three primary objectives in mind. The first was to teach the farmers correct methods for harvesting, processing, and storing their coffee. The second was to educate them as to the requirements and needs of the export buyers, so as by satisfying these requirements they could get a higher price and derive a better income for their families. The third was to inform them of how the world market works, how the price for coffee is determined and the importance of quality, and what are the costs involved in processing, sorting, packing, and transporting coffee for export. In other words, what are the costs, other then coffee, that determine the FOB prices quoted on the world market. The purpose of this is so the farmers can understand and determine for themselves what is a fair and reasonable price for their coffee so they neither get cheated by the brokers or have such unrealistic expectations that they end up not being able to sell their coffee at the end of the season. When developing the training program we took a pragmatic rather then theoretical approach to the different subjects. We strove to show the farmers, for each topic, whether the method of harvesting, storage, drying or processing, what would be the economic effect if it would not be done correctly. For example, rather then just tell them that they shouldn't pick green cherries or that you couldn't make good coffee from green cherries we showed them how they would get much more money if they picked red cherries. See, in Myanmar the farmers sell the cherries by a volume unit called a "Pyi". Now it takes 2,200 unripe small green cherries to make one Pyi, but it only takes 1,300 large red cherries to make one Pyi. When you consider the lower market price for green or mixed quality cherries combined with the greatly reduced number of Pyi they obtain if they pick green or mixed cherries they lose over 60% of their potential income. Another example would be that if it takes a women an hour to crush one Pyi by hand then it takes maybe 1 - 2 hours to crush and produce 1 Viss (Myanmar weight unit equaling 3.6 Lbs) of green beans, and when they crush by hand they end up splitting and crushing the green beans and then they get a lower price in the market. Well when the price for green beans is only a few kyats more then for the equivalent amount of cherries, then they are losing time and money by trying to crush themselves. We constantly try to teach them in the trainings, using charts, facts, and examples from their own life's, that if they will follow and adopt new methods they will both make more money, and have more time to pursue other income producing projects. Another important aspect of the trainings is to explain the workings of the worlds coffee markets, and the needs and requirements of the exporters and roasters. We have found that the more the farmers truly understand the reasons why we tell them to pick one way or to process another way, and the more they understand the impact this will have not just on today's price, but on the future price they will get for their coffee, the more responsive they are.

In organizing the trainings we first met with the local village and community leaders to explain what we were trying to accomplish. By gaining their understanding and trust the trainings become more effective as these community leaders actually encourage the people to attend and really listen to us. We also work very closely with the monks in the village monasteries for the same reason, as the people look up to them as teachers and will listen to them. For the trainings to be truly effective we have found that they must be conducted on an ongoing basis. Each year you want to go back to the same villages to repeat the trainings. We have found that in subsequent training sessions we get many more farmers, as the ones attending the first sessions tend to tell their friends about them and thus attendance is better. Also in subsequent training sessions there are farmers who have attended the earlier sessions and who have adopted and had success with the systems and methods in which we have instructed them. We ask them to speak of their experiences and we have found that the success of their peers and fellow farmers have a large influence in getting other farmers to follow the suggested methods. Based on the reactions from farmers, and the changes we have witnessed in the market place, we believe that a proper educational program is, and will be, a key element for countries in South East Asia wishing to increase the quality and income generated from their coffee. When we began the training programs, almost all coffee was processed by the farmers directly, and the wet cherries that were offered in the market were on average 70-80% green. Now in areas that where we have been conducting the trainings we are receiving on average 95% red cherries and even most of the market coffee produced by the farmers themselves is of a quality where very little second stage processing is necessary and the waste percentage after selection has been reduced down to an acceptable 10-15%. Education and training works. It is the key to producing quality coffee and the only way to ensure a viable future, and a good income, for the coffee farmers and producers of Asia. A proper educational program takes some time and money, but the returns and increased profit to be derived are many times the cost involved and will be the difference between success and failure in the future. Gregory Love is a director of Golden Triangle Eco-Resources, the largest producer of coffee in Myanmar. He also works as a consultant on coffee processing and quality improvement, has written articles for Tea and Coffee Asia, as well as spoken at seminars on coffee. For more information on coffee training programs he can be reached by E-mail at coffee@mptmail.net.mm.