Peter Sheppard: Coffee Producers Association Chair on the plans to expand coffee production in New Zealand

A shift in climate has opened the door to grow more coffee in the Far North. 

Industry specialists have gathered near Kaikohe for the annual Coffee Producers Association conference. 

New Zealand currently has about a dozen growers and more than seven thousand trees, with goals to scale-up production. 

Association Chair Peter Sheppard told Mike Hosking we're in a zone where the climate has become warm enough to make the industry viable. 

He says there’s huge potential in New Zealand, and they’re at the beginning of a really exciting journey. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the country that loves coffee, could we grow more?
And actually, for your decent size producer, do you realize
we grow coffee in this country? The far North is
where you find all the beans. We got twelve grows
apparently about seven thousand plants anyway. Peter Shepherd is the
chair of the New Zealand Coffee Produces Association. Peter morning,
Good morning mate. The twelve growers. Is that stable or

(00:20):
is that increasing?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
That's actually increasing at quite a rate. Lots of people
are starting to plant a few plants and find the
right soils in the right places to grow coffee. So
that's going to grow quite a lot in the coming years.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
All the far North so far, all the fine.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Norths because it has to be frost free. And you
know there's a really great microclimate right up in the
Far North which pretty much ensures that.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
And so see, I'm a coffee fanatic, but I didn't
even know we made it. What does it taste like
compared with the stuff we would get from Ethiopia or
Brazil wherever? Is it unique?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yes? Well, the whole way that the coffee industry is
going make is to have specialist coffees and these can
be brewed in different ways and including fermentations of the
beans before the process. And so what we're going for
is that really high value specialty market, collaborating with wine
industry on some of the yeasts, for example, to get

(01:15):
these unique flavors that create these really high value products.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Wow. And so you sell what domestically you export?

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Well, there's a couple of places selling domestically at the moment,
but our long term aim is to go for that
high value global market wherever it might be, to create
a really high value industry here.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Have you got a volume problem at the moment with
just twelve gras and seven thousand plants? I mean, is
exporting a realistic possibility not for a.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Couple of years. But we want to a walk before
we get run, so to speak. So we're learning as
we go to make the highest quality product we can.
At the moment, the stuff that's available helps pretty quickly
to you know, enthusiastic coffee lovers around the country, like
all these things that takes a few years. Plants take
a while to grow, but there's huge potential here and

(02:04):
you know, we're on the beginning of a really exciting journey.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Are you looking at buy products and if you are,
what are.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
They absolutely you know, the pulp that comes off be
turned into a tea, for example, and that's you know,
you can buy that from other places around the world
as well. We're looking at processing that also in the
Far North into valuable products.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Interesting well, and we're stable in that sense because of
course the reason the price of coffee's gone up is climatically.
It's a little bit of an issue globally at the moment,
isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Absolutely? And I think that's what brings us into play here.
And now you know, we're in a zone now thirty
five degrees south in the sort of Kaitaia region where
you know the climate is now over the last twenty
to thirty years got warm enough actually to make this
extremely viable.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Fantastic, Peter go well it. We'll stay in touch. Peter Sheppard,
who's the chair of the New Zealand Coffee Producers Association.
My new venture at the moment is is roasting beans.
I'm up there this weekend roasting second batch. I've roasted
so far one hundred and twenty grams, which does which

(03:09):
doesn't make me one of the bigger roasters. So I've
got one hundred and twenty grams, and I put it
in my ear tight container and I can absolutely delicious.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
I mean, as Peter says, you've got a walk before
we can run exactly.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
So I'm going to roast my second one hundred and
twenty grams this weekend, and so that will make me
up to having roasted a whole packet. And so I
got also this week by the way, an extender pack
for my roasting machine. So that allows me to basically
go commercial and probably roast maybe two hundred grams at

(03:40):
a time. So don't hold me back. It's all on.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
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