Future Farm

Mr. Toi – Fine Robusta Producer – Personal Story

“Six years ago, I only knew how to produce commercial grade coffee cherries, which are only good for cheap, low quality instant coffee and provide minimal financial benefits to the farmer.  I didn’t even have the opportunity or resources to drink and enjoy coffee myself.  

In 2014, a Vietnamese coffee expert visited my farm where we were producing commercial grade coffee. When he was leaving, he saw a pile of coffee that I had picked and collected that was drying in front of the house.  He asked why this coffee was mixed with impurities?  I explained that these ripe cherries had been eaten by birds and I didn’t want to waste them, so I swept them up and dried them to later sell to intermediaries. The birds find the sweetest coffee cherries and only eat the mucilage layer before spitting out the coffee seeds, but we can still make some money off of them.  Without an explanation, he asked me to wash, dry and send them to him.

A few weeks later, I received a payment for the coffee cherries that was three times more than our coffee usually made. I was shocked and my curiosity piqued. Why did he want to purchase these ripened, sweet fruits that were eaten by birds and were just waste?  What was the value hidden inside these sweet fruits? 

The next day, I went to the internet station and found that this was the first added value in processing specialty coffee. If we picked ripe, high-sugar coffee cherries and processed them with better, cleaner care – would there be a better, higher price on the horizon?  That horizon promised a life where my family could have financial security and not be dependent on the commodity price market. Ever since then, we have produced specialty, Fine Robusta coffee.  The more I have learned about this coffee over the past six years, the more passionate I am about it and the more it has led me to make changes in my community.  

Agriculture is the most important industry in the world because it produces food, and food is a basic human need, but the farmers who are key to the cultivation of good quality products are often forgotten. Fine Robusta coffee has led me on a quest to change the current farming practices and uplift not only my family but also the other workers alongside me. Now, I can purchase and enjoy my own cup of coffee, and I want others to be able to do the same.”