Harrison tests coffee at the first annual national cupping competition

Malawi Coffee Travels Around the Globe

Harrison Kalua is the General Manager of the Smallholder Coffee Farmers Trust (SCFT) and has attended several cupping trainings and competitions throughout the world. However, when he attended the USAID Malawi sponsored 1st annual national cupping competition in September 2005 he was impressed with how cupping against Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) standards reduced the subjectivity of cupping coffees and made this skill open to all practitioners. He knew he needed to replicate this sort of training in the Mzuzu area of northern Malawi where the SCFT works with over 3,500 smallholder coffee growers including McDonald Ngulube.

Harrison had extra motivation to organize a similar training in northern Malawi because his smallholder growers swept the top five coffees in the 2005 competition. After showcasing his national competition winning coffees in September and October at international cupping events in Germany and Costa Rica, respectively, he returned to Malawi to host his internal SFCT competition in December. Patterned on the national competition, the Mzuzu training/competition was held over the course of two days during the first week of December. Harrison sought and received assistance from USAID in the form of SCAA support materials to assist the training.

Since winning the national competition Harrison has been able to export his smallholder’s coffees to international markets. His “national winner” status at the Germany competition provided him the opportunity to close a deal on 18 metric tons to a specialty coffee buyer in Italy. SFCT coffee sold at a 35% premium above the “New York C” or coffee reference price on the New York Board of Trade. His Costa Rica trip has already lined up interested buyers for the 2006 crop now in the field.

Harrison wants to retain his competitive edge for his company, the Trust, and his growers and understands that quality control is at the root of this success. He is quoted in one of the national Malawian newspapers as stating that the SFCT must “pull up our socks in order to maintain the lead in the coffee industry” and that this explains why “this in-house exercise” of an internal coffee training and competition is so important. His target is to have 60% of the SFCT annual production classified as “specialty”.  The increased market awareness of the quality of Malawi’s coffees not only translates in increased exports, improved foreign exchange earnings and higher profits for the Trust.