COFFEE and papaya sounds like an odd beverage and food combination. In the paddock, they complement each other perfectly.
Australia's oldest coffee plantation, Skybury Tropical Plantation, on the Atherton Tableland, is embracing this beneficial relationship by trialling double cropping of the two products.
If the trials prove successful, the Mareeba-based farm will increase production of its trademark sweet red papaya and Arabica coffee over the next 18 months.
Skybury director Ian MacLaughlin said while double cropping is practiced in other tropical growing countries, it was unusual to see this type of farming in Australia.
“I have often asked the question why not? Double cropping is highly sustainable, more productive and uses environmental resources such as land, water and sunlight more efficiently," Mr MacLaughlin said.
“It also reduces lag between crops as well as insect and disease pressure, which is prevalent in a mono culture.”
The two different crops are interplanted together to give a total yield per acre that is higher than when crops are planted separately.
“Papaya and coffee are very complementary to each other having similar nutrient requirements," Mr MacLaughlin said.
“Papaya is what is known as an overstory crop, providing shade to coffee, which is an understory plant. The shade also offers great weed control.”
Mr MacLaughlin said double cropping aligned with Skybury’s vision to be highly sustainable, setting the benchmark when it came to innovative farming that was clean and green.
He said the increase in yield was part of Skybury’s longer term plan to double coffee production by 2020 and increase papaya production.
Presently, more than two million papaya are picked annually, while the coffee plantation produces an average of 60 tonnes per year.
With the past six months described as "perfect conditions", the Skybury coffee harvest looks set to be a solid crop.
It is expected to harvest about 50 tonnes by the end of the month.
The plantation produces two varieties of Arabica coffee including the Yellow Catuai and Red Bourbon.
Farm manager Mark MacLaughlin said the uniform flowering of the 90,000 coffee trees in October last year has led to a full flush of coffee this year.
“Conditions have been very good, and we have had nice cool weather for harvest, which is definitely a plus,” he said.
Ian MacLaughlin said most of the coffee would be exported internationally, bound for key markets in Europe and Asia.
However, he said there was a changing trend as Australians looked closer to home for their daily coffee hit.
“The consumption in Europe varies very little from year to year and they are by large the largest consumers of Australian grown coffee, however, we have started to see in the last 18 months more interest from Australian distributors as cafes in the southern states look for local, homegrown produce,” he said.
Driving this growth domestically, according to Mr MacLaughlin, is the food revolution and greater awareness about how goods have been grown and produced internationally.
“In Australia we have some of the highest standards of farming practices anywhere in the world, and there is no doubt that goods produced in this country have been flagged as better quality, with a cleaner and greener image,” he said.
Harvest is also underway for the Tropical Plantation’s banana and papaya.
