In January 2019 when I was cupping Asean coffee with Asean Coffee Federation for our first cupping session for 2019, I tasted a coffee that stood out from the rest of the coffee. Many cuppers similarly gave very positive remarks, it was revealed to us that its a coffee from Malaysia. Shortly after I started to enquire information about its origins and became curious about the story behind how it ended up tasting so well. Thereafter after I started to connect with Jackz Lee from Sabarica. We had long conversations and shared with him my plans to put
our homegrown coffee into prominent places and share our wonderful discovery with the world.
After a few months in planning, I finally made the trip with Jackz to Ranau, Sabah to visit our first homegrown specialty grade arabica coffee farms. The farms are around 3 hours drive from the city of Kota Kinabalu. The local residents in the Ranau area are of the Dusun tribes. We are greeted by some of the friendliest people I’ve come across. With elevation of between 1300-1500 meters above sea level and cool climate with fertile soil, I can see why it is a perfect place to grow arabica coffee. We stayed at Daimin and Maini’s coffee farmstay and they look
after us with their warm hospitality and home cooked meals. The least I could do is to roast some of their coffee with a stove top roaster and we all got to enjoy the coffee the next morning.
The day was spent visiting many small holders and walking with them and listening to their stories through their farms so I can experience first hand what they go through and understand their challenges. It gave me a clear picture the areas they needed help. Coffex Coffee’s assurance to them is as long as they keep producing consistent high quality coffee, we are committed in purchasing and promoting Sabarica coffee. I brought along and donated a Kett moisture analyser to the community so they can check and monitor the moisture content during their drying process. We realise after all the experiences at the farms, they needed help in critical areas and we are in the planning of setting up a wet processing centre for the farmers for better processing consistency and process
controls.
As a Malaysian company that roast coffee locally, we truly believe there is a need to support and grow the local coffee farming industry and at the same time help alleviate poverty.
Kelvin Ngow
Executive Director
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