The Coffee Industry Corporation has recently conducted its first Green Bean Coffee Standard Stakeholder Participatory workshop in Lae which attracted many industry participants like exporters and processors.

The workshop was held at the Lae International Hotel on July 30 to August 2, 2018.

Senior Quality Control Officer for CIC Rose Romalus facilitated the meeting attended by 26 coffee experts in Morobe Province. They represented mainly exporters, processors and organized groups involve in third party exports.

Ms Romalus said purpose of the workshop was to get industry stakeholders and standard users understand and appreciate the changes in the revised green bean standard. Gaps were also identified for further specific trainings.

The revised grading system was prepared in 2015 in response to a need to standardize and upgrade the quality of coffee for export.

Other areas covered in the four-day training were cherry and parchment standards, quality control processes, and regulatory and policy guidelines.

Practical sessions were also conducted on coffee defect analysis and cupping.

An interesting area on documentations and Customs ASYCUDA computerised management systems were presented by Marie Kiliawi CIC’s Senior Export Officer. The customs system covers foreign trade procedures including handling of manifests and customs declarations, accounting procedures, transit and suspense procedures.

The exporters and freight forwarders were given the opportunity in this session to discuss delay issues and challenges that the ASYCUDA World has brought about.

The Industry Regulation Compliance Manager Sam Menanga also presented the new revised regulatory policy guidelines and covered areas on cherry and parchment coffee standards.

The presentation on the revised green bean standard allowed participants to ask questions and ensured that they understood the new grades and their specifications. The changes on bag markings and additional use of single jute bags as well as special packing for specialty micro-lots were also discussed.

The Importance of meeting ICO (International Coffee Organization) quality requirements in terms of allowable defects in shipments was presented as well. The CIC export office reports to ICO for PNG as a coffee producer.

Many participants expressed satisfaction saying the revised standard is much easier to understand. Those who represented grower cooperatives wanted to see organized cooperative groups, mill supervisors and exporters to meet in one workshop.

They said this will ensure the same information is shared by everyone along the supply chain thus each one plays his or her part to produce and deliver quality products to the mills and to the exporters.

The facilitators recommended that future cupping training is conducted with organized groups for farmers to appreciate the quality of their coffee at farm level.

Also, similar future training should include two employees per mill say a supervisor and leading hand for good preparation of coffee at the mill according to standards for exporters.

The chief executive officer of CIC Charles Dambui explained the revised green bean standard safeguards the PNG coffee industry by setting perimeters for control on quality of green coffee exported out of the country.

“It outlines all aspects or specifications of trade grades, coffee preparation; packing for export, labelling, sampling, olfactory and visual examination and determination of defects, sensory and size analysis for stakeholders (exporters) to comply with.”

Mr Dambui added that the standards removes the many criteria for grading coffee which discriminates some 80 percent of between 3 million and 4 million smallholder growers who produces some of the best coffee as blocks and plantations yet graded at low Y grade.

The grading system was proposed by CIC and prepared by Biological Standards Committee of NISIT following an extensive consultation in 2015 by CIC as the regulation agency with industry stakeholders both in the country and overseas.

The CEO said CIC will continue to run similar workshops in other major coffee growing provinces.

Mr Dambui also acknowledged CIC’s coffee component of Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project (CIC-PPAP) to fund the workshop and similar trainings that will follow.

The CIC-PPAP is an industry rehabilitation project. It is a PNG Government (Department of Agriculture and Livestock) initiative supported by World Bank and IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development) through loan financing. It is implemented by CIC through a project management unit known as PPAP-Coffee Component.

APPROVED FOR RELEASE:

Mr Charles Dambui
Chief Executive Officer

Source: https://postcourier.com.pg/cic-runs-first-green-bean-standard-training/