Fijian wild coffee farmers embrace agrotourism with 'paddock to plate' coffee

When Luke Fryett visited friends in the highlands of Fiji, he saw children sucking and spitting out the seeds of "cherries" growing on the trees all around the village.

These cherries turned out to be wild coffee beans – the small round stone fruit produced by the coffee tree.

"I couldn't believe that there was so much coffee and nothing was done with it," Mr. Fryett said.

"It fell to the ground and rotted."

< p class=" _39n3n">The fateful day over a decade ago led the New Zealander to found Bula Coffee, which became one of the country's first agritourism businesses.

< figure class="HTQDr _8ohDw yvdCO IfoSG" role="group" data-print="inline-media" aria-labelledby="102153998" data-component="Figure" data-uri="coremedia://imageproxy/102153998" >Luke Fryett says protecting people and the environment is essential to the success of the operation. (ABC Rural: Lucy Cooper)

Mr. Fryett began by harvesting 20 kilograms of cherries from a single family's coffee plants.

"Nobody would believe us that we would buy coffee and pay them for it" , he said.

"So we just started with a family and slowly grew from there.

"Now we are buying about 5,000 a year and we produce about 60 tons of cherries now."

A murky history

The coffee industry in Fiji is based on the efforts of people in rural villages to harvest wild coffee.

But that gave way to exploitation.

Mr. Fryett and his team hope to change that by working on three key pillars: people, planet and profit.

"If one of them grows without the other two not grow up with him, we consider the company not successful." he said.

"We cannot generate huge profits and destroy the planet without taking care of the people we set out to help."

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Mr. Fryett's dedication to transparency is backed by a receipt system and connection to local pickers.

"We know many of them by name, we know their families, we know where they are in the village," he said.

"So when there are cyclones, we are always there to talk to them and understand what they need."

Diana " Didi" Tohou Domalailai and her family have known and worked with Mr. Fryett for over a decade.

She supports the value of the company...