For the urban cool, coffee has somehow become a form of luxurious indulgence -- not just a tonic to wake you up in the morning, or a kick to keep your eyes wide open in the yawning afternoon. But for Theerasit Amornsaensuk, managing director of Green Net SE, coffee drinking has a higher function still -- that of protecting forested mountains, while coffee-growing can provide a means for local villagers to coexist with their environment.
"It depends on the coffee beans you choose. If those beans come from real organic plantations run by local communities, it's likely you'll help protect the forest as you enjoy your cuppa. But if those beans come from environmentally irresponsible coffee-harvesting, the indulgence might lead to harmful environmental effects," Theerasit says during the launch of MiVANA, one of the few organic coffee brands with a certified organic farming label.
The launch of MiVANA, at Siam Society late last month, is a surprise in itself for those familiar with the company. MiVANA coffee has been on the market for two years already, but is limited to certain supermarkets, or boutique hotels such as Rayavadee in Krabi. Now the socially enterprising company feels ready to expand the idea of their business model.
This organic coffee brand is a business venture of a non-profit group. Green Net SE is the business arm of Green Net Foundation, a respected conservation network that has helped promote sustainable agriculture and organic farming for over two decades. Realising that, as the "coffee culture" has resulted in a profusion of cafés and a surge in consumption, Green Net believes its environmental mission is tied deeply to consumer behaviour, agricultural practices and capitalist investment -- thus the company's mission to bring these elements together.
Refusing to call himself a coffee connoisseur, Theerasit was commissioned by Asian Development Bank (ADB) to provide organic-harvesting training to coffee growers in Laos before he returned to open MiVANA three years ago. As an extension of an NGO, the business is not profit-driven.
"We want to contribute to the solution of environmental problems. We don't go there in order to find land to grow coffee, and coffee-trading is not a goal -- it's just a means to protect the forest and help local communities," Theerasit explains.
How does coffee relate to the environment? It started when the company commissioned 310 families living in three watershed forests in the North to grow coffee for them. The total plantation area is 8,200 rai, in Khun Jair National Park, and Lan Marm Koek National Park in Chiang Rai. Despite being part of the national parks, those land plots are exempted by the cabinet motion of June 1998 that allows local communities to live and harvest on the condition that farming activities must be small-scale and not alter the watershed-ecology system.
Several years ago, the communities were at odds with the Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP). Local villagers grew fruits by using chemical fertilisers that polluted natural streams. MiVANA, working with authorities in selecting the areas, introduced shade-grown coffee plantations as an alternative. The DNP agreed to give it a try, and villagers also wished to switch from hazardous chemical-fertiliser-dependent farming to organic coffee.
But organic harvesting is more complicated than stopping using pesticides and chemical fertilisers. "It's a whole process of cultivation and production, done in alliance with nature and the welfare of the involved communities," he adds.
Shade-grown coffee harvesting requires coffee plants to be grown under canopies. Coffee shrubs need shade in order to develop quality beans full of aroma; meanwhile, natural fertilisers are derived from organic waste, or rotten leaves and decomposed worms and insects inhabiting the soil. In short, coffee can be grown in a forest that has all these conditions. This method is not suitable for investors who want to see quick cash and high yield in a short period; this traditional plantation takes at least three weeks longer and provides lesser yields than the Sun-grown mono-crop method, popular around the world over the past decade.
According to the study conducted by scientists from the University of Texas at Austin and five other institutions, the proportion of land used to cultivate shade-grown coffee has fallen nearly 20% globally since 1996. The researchers have noted a global shift in cultivation, with growers moving toward more intensive Sun-grown coffee-farming, which gives better yields. This has coincided with the growth in the coffee business over the past 20 years.
Theerasit Amornsaensuk, managing director of Green Net SE, prepares MiVANA coffee beans.
Yet the traditional shade-grown products are preferred in this business. Coffee connoisseurs believe longer harvesting time and shade-grown cultivation can provide beans with better taste and aroma, while organic fertilisers are believed to help coffee beans develop all 1,600 aromatic compounds available.
MiVANA is one among many companies trying to tap into the lucrative coffee market. Even the agro-titan CP has come into the field. Companies, growers and coffee chains also use the term "organic" as a selling point that implies higher quality. MiVANA, being an arm of a long-standing NGO, promotes the organic quality not just as advertising to consumers, but, more so, towards the cultivation side. The company also demands growers allocate 25% of their plot to grow different species, enriching biodiversity in the forest. The company also gives an "organic premium" of 15% extra funds from market price to communities that adhere to its rule. Part of this organic premium is used to develop public-welfare facilities such as roads, libraries and sport programmes.
It also demands that growers extract the beans within 24 hours after harvesting. The company is strict on this demand, in order to control the quality of the harvest.
"Anyone can say their beans come from organic farming. But I think it's our social duty to provide information for customers to ensure that organic-coffee harvesting is approved by respected certification bodies," he says.
MiVANA products have received IFOAM, an internationally recognised accreditation developed by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, which provides certification to organic products around the world. This label is accepted among Western countries, as well as Asia, including Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.
Despite its small start, MiVANA is expanding its production. Again working with authorities and local communities, the company just signed an MoU with the Department of National Parks to develop organic coffee in another 10,000 rai of land in the watershed forest in Chiang Rai's national parks.
Unlike other coffee plantations, on private property or in community forests, Green SE maintains a policy of selecting forest mountains with local communities for plantations. "Our business is not large compared to other major coffee-trading firms. We just want to show society that coffee can provide a solution to protecting forests and helping local communities live and plant sustainably."
