Women PNG coffee exporter secures premium export to the United States

Coffee farmer Marey Yogiyo has been selling coffee to buyers in her native Papua New Guinea for 16 years. Earlier this year, she became the first ever woman in the coffee sector to receive an export license – and promptly saw the price she received rise 63% above the local rate.

Olam International, one of the world’s leading agribusiness companies, bought 60 bags of coffee from her company for US$ 18,000.

‘It’s real. I am now an exporter,’ said the 56-year-old mother of five, who lives in the Eastern Highlands Province, the centre of the country’s coffee production industry.

Yogiyo’s export success appears set to continue: Olam is considering an even bigger purchase in 2015.

Before she could sell abroad, however, Yogiyo needed a permit, not to mention clients. In 2014, she got both. In July, her company, Yogiyo Coffee Ltd., became the first womenowned coffee company in the country to receive a government license to export. The first bags of Bauka Blue were shipped to the United States of America shortly after. ‘After 10 years of consistently working on perfecting the quality and looking for markets, the first order from Olam re-energized Bauka Women Coffee to see it through the next 10 years,’ she said.

Yogiyo made the initial contact with her new buyers at a buyer mentor group organized by the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the International Women Coffee Alliance (IWCA) on the margins of the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual conference in Seattle in April 2014. The training provided participants with knowledge and skills to meet the demands of international buyers, enabling them to position their coffee to be more competitive in international markets and fetch higher prices. Following her return, ITC liaised with the Papua New Guinea Investment Promotion Agency to facilitate the issuance of her export license.

Olam International is one of the world’s largest food buyers, with annual sales of US$ 15 billion and operations in 65 countries. On its website for its industrial buyers, Olam emphasizes Yogiyo’s story and vision for creating a distinctive product. ‘She founded the group to encourage women to make coffee a way of life so that they can support themselves and their families,’ the site says.

Marey Yogiyo’s sales to Olam represent a significant achievement for women coffee producers in Papua New Guinea, said Vanessa Erogbogbo, who manages the ITC Women and Trade Programme, adding that it also benefits other women members of the Bauka Coffee Group from whom she sources coffee. ‘Direct exports provide greater influence over markets and increase the income of rural coffee growers significantly,’ Erogbogbo said.

Yogiyo, who herself has a farm with 20 acres of coffee, will also buy coffee from nine other farmers as of the coffee year 2015. She hopes to build an export business supporting many of the 645 coffee-growing households in the area. ‘This is a great avenue to support women in coffee groups, maximizing their net return on their coffee,’ she said.

Papua New Guinea’s coffee, while making up only 1% of global production, is known in specialty coffee circles for a unique aura and for the brightness and complexity of its flavours. The Aiyura Valley, where Bauka Women Coffee is situated, first saw coffee grown in the 1940s; its plantations and smallholder gardens are known for the varied berry and citrus flavours of the coffee they produce.

Bauka Women Coffee has linked up with another women’s based cooperative to reopen a long-shuttered coffee processing mill in 2015.

Yogiyo predicts more certificates and increased exports to come. ‘2015 will be an exciting year for Bauka Women Coffee and we are looking forward to that.’