Although coffee cultivation preceded tea in this country, the island has been branded as a ‘tea nation’ for decades. Yet today, the coffee sector is making a comeback – and with great potential.
“Over the last few years, we have seen a great deal of interest in Sri Lankan coffee both locally and internationally,” said the Chairman of Lanka Coffee Association (LCA) Kushan Samararatne, on a recent airing of LMDtv.
Ceylon Coffee is known for its spicy and nutty flavour profile, which he attributes to factors such as where it is produced, elevation levels, temperature patterns and soil content. Meanwhile, the Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE) has identified an interesting development in the flavour of locally grown coffee.
Samararatne explained that Sri Lanka sent a sample of its homegrown coffees to MICE in 2022 and following the cupping process – i.e. where coffee beans are evaluated for their characteristics – they were hailed for having a “distinct and very unusual citrusy note that you don’t find in [coffees from] other countries in Southeast Asia.”
But although the demand for local coffee is rising, the picture is far from rosy: climate change has been adversely impacting the sector and impacting harvests.
He noted: “Climate change has had a huge impact on the coffee sector – especially during the last harvesting season because we had a drought and then a rainy season; and now we’re in a drought again.”
“If this trend continues, it’s not going to be good for Sri Lankan coffee because prices will rise. There’s a huge supply and demand gap at the moment. It’s good for farmers because they can fetch good prices but this is not sustainable,” he cautioned.
Like climate change, labour also impacts the coffee sector. While coffee demands less labour than tea, the quality of the final product depends on those who work in the plantations.
Samararatne elaborated: “When we talk about the quality of coffee, the first point at which you can ruin it is when plucking. We recommend plucking only red cherries but see [workers] pluck all the berries in a stem, the moment they see around three red cherries.”
He continued: “It kills the quality at that point. After that, there are certain steps in the value chain but you can’t recover the quality you’ve lost.” Along with quality assurance, looking outwards is critical for Ceylon Coffee if it is to harvest its full potential.
“Sri Lanka is a small country – how many coffees are we going to drink a day?” Samararatne wondered, adding that “whatever investments we make or efforts we put in cannot be based [only] on the local market. We need to be looking at the bigger picture.”
And he asserted that “if we’re very serious about exports, there are two ways – speciality coffee and value addition.”
Samararatne continued: “If you look at the global picture, there are two types of coffee drinkers – purists and indulgers. Purists will only drink a black coffee in the morning or at most, a cappuccino; but nothing else – no flavours. Indulgers are more like Gen Zs or people who want to try new things; they’re happy to try a caramel cappuccino or coffee bag.”
He pointed out that looking at exports in terms of both these types of coffee will work well for Sri Lanka to help “create an entirely different market segment rather than trying to compete against the big boys like Brazil, Vietnam or Indonesia on a commercial scale.”
Sri Lankans too have a part to play in advocating for locally grown coffee, in Samararatne’s view: “Most of us were raised in a culture where coffee was given either when you stay up late or have a stomach ache – that’s the first [mis]conception that we need to break.”
“There are a lot of really good Sri Lankan coffees in the market. We have this mindset that if the coffee is from Italy or Brazil, it’s great; and if it is from Sri Lanka, it’s not. That’s not the case – our coffee is really good,” he declared.