Coffee Roots
Winner of the prestigious Westpac Women of Influence Award for her Affiming Works initiative, Emeline Afeaki-Mafile’o is changing lives through coffee. Her Tupu’anga Coffee sells 700 kilos of coffee a month in Tonga alone and with strengthening exports she’s proving the importance of having strong roots.
The Tongan word ‘Tupu’anga’, meaning to grow or spring up from roots, literally describes the journey of Emeline Afeaki-Mafile’o in becoming the proud owner of Tupu’anga Coffee with her husband Alipate.
It was Emeline’s roots in social work that led to her amazing community-based work in the Tongan coffee industry. Now Tupu’anga Coffee is a licensed True Pacific Producer with strong local sales and exports to New Zealand, Australia and Japan.
“Buyers can source our product knowing it has gone through an independent quality assurance process like that of True Pacific. It’s fantastic because the dynamics and logistics of organising and coordinating traders, wholesalers and retailers are quite difficult,” says Emeline.
The catalyst for Tupu’anga Coffee in Tonga was Emeline’s social enterprise project in New Zealand, called Community Café. The café was set up in Auckland as a way of raising funds for Emeline’s non-profit organisation Affirming Works, which she has run for the past 12 years. It has since become a hub for the South Auckland community.
While searching for a local coffee brand to sell at the café, Emeline found a great-tasting Arabica coffee produced in Tonga. Their supply enquiries fortuitously led to an offer to buy the entire company. So Emeline and Alipate decided to accept the challenge of rebuilding the struggling company as a way of giving back to their local Tongan community, as well as supporting their social initiatives in New Zealand.
Emeline applied the knowledge and principles developed through an extensive career in social work to the Tupu’anga Coffee operation. Her strong beliefs in ethical trade and organics were reinforced by True Pacific.
“What I love about our coffee is that we’re doing it organically so we’re also contributing to restoring farms and plantations in Tonga. We have 10 cooperative farms that we’re currently responsible for maintaining and our organic processes help to ensure we get a ripe harvest,” says Emeline, who recently finalised Tupu’anga Coffee’s HACCP certification to retain True Pacific licensing.
“In doing all this, we also have the farmers, the pickers, the landowners, the factory workers and those who sell the coffee in our small retail store in Tonga. For every kilo that’s picked we pay more than the commodity rate for coffee, according to the American share market, then divide the price per kilo between everyone involved.”
Tupu’anga Coffee directly affects 76 local Tongan Workers each year. This extends to hundreds of young people that receive mentoring through Affirming Works with proceeds from coffee sales.
Emeline demonstrates a natural entrepreneurial streak through the innovative business models she has devised in order to continue her passion for young people in the social sector. Her success stems from a business philosophy that puts people before profit.
That work was recognised when she scooped a Women of Influence award in October 2013, which recognise and celebrate the achievements of women in different areas of society. Emeline was recognised for “innovative and extraordinary leadership” of her communities, winning the community service and social enterprise category.
She started Affirming Works at just 25 years of age before branching into her own social policy consultancy Fofola Ltd. Since establishing Community Café, her venture into coffee has seen the development of new partnership networks and engagement in new product development.
“We’re now making our own vinaigrette from the skins of the coffee. We make our own Vanilla products and we’ve developed a vanilla flavoured coffee blend, as well. It has good health benefits as a natural substitute to other sweeteners,” says Emeline.
“We’ve partnered with community organisations and social services and True Pacific is one of those partners. We don’t just sell our coffee in the café; we sell products from other True Pacific producers also, like Hot Samoan Boys Chilli Sauce, PNG Tuna, Venui Vanilla and Heilala Vanilla products. We’re a business that loves to buy True Pacific.”
Flying back and forth from New Zealand to Tonga, Emeline and Albert understand the importance of having good staff they can trust.
“You can call it entrepreneurship, but I’m just really grateful for the people. I’ve had lots of help from people who believe in the vision. They can see that it’s creating jobs in the Pacific region so they want to be involved. The more people that want to be involved, the better. True Pacific is part of that.”
Quick facts about Tupu'Anga coffee
• Tupu’anga’s Arabica coffee is handpicked, roasted, ground and packaged entirely in the Kingdom of Tonga
• Tupu’anga’s eco-friendly farms lend the beans a distinctive mild flavour presenting a soft acidity and a good body
• Through its sole New Zealand distributor, Affirming Works, Tupu'anga provides funds for a programme that mentors 300 Pacific youth in secondary schools in South Auckland
www.truepacific.com/producers/tupuanga-coffee