Kōkako Organic Coffee: Conscientious Coffee Never Tasted So Good

Kōkako Organic Coffee is one of Auckland’s organic pioneers. Established in 2001, it was the city’s first organic coffee roastery. When Mike Murphy purchased the company in 2007, he began working towards becoming officially certified with Biogro, which he achieved in 2009.

Murphy believes that “healthy food grown in healthy soil creates healthy people,” and so committed to the accreditation and never looked back.

He had a vision to build an organic coffee brand long before organics became more mainstream.

“We were really the only one that was focused on the organic and sustainable approach in coffee in New Zealand at the time,” says Murphy.

Kōkako has continually strived to innovate and lead the way throughout their almost 20-year journey. There are currently over 300 coffee roasters in New Zealand but even now, as the industry has somewhat caught up, only a small percentage of these companies roast certified organic coffee.

Along with being certified organic, Kōkako is also Fairtrade and Climate Neutral accredited. These are Voluntary Sustainability Schemes reassuring customers of Kōkako's values, providing important third-party verification for consumers.

All of the overseas cooperatives Kōkako work with are accredited for their commitment to the environmental standards upheld by Biogro. Through the Fairtrade system, growers of 100% certified organic products receive an additional premium for their efforts, providing them with a better quality of life and encouraging them to continue down the organic path.

Kōkako roasts and distributes from their Mt Eden roastery to cafes, retailers, and home consumers nationwide, as well as distributing Fairtrade organic drinking chocolate. Green beans for roasting, along with sugar and cocoa for drinking chocolate production, are imported from all over the world. Many Kōkako team members have had the opportunity to take trips to coffee-producing origins such as Sumatra, and more regularly (a place they hold close to their hearts) Papua New Guinea. These trips are invaluable to all parties involved.

“For me, the work we are doing in Papua New Guinea is far more than ‘supply chain management’, but rather a personal and professional quest to add significant value and create long-standing relationships and knowledge sharing — this is already producing mutually beneficial outcomes“ — Mike Murphy

Many of the cafe and retail outlet owners who work with Kōkako are equally committed to doing business in a sustainable way, choosing to source their coffee from a company that aligns with their own values.

Being certified organic provides Kōkako with opportunities to sell their coffee and drinking chocolate at progressive sustainability-focused retailers such as Huckleberry and Commonsense Organics. Through a partnership with Ceres Organics, many large format retailers such as Countdown, New World and Pak ‘N Save stores now stock Kōkako's Drinking Chocolate as an organic, locally made option sitting alongside the many larger FMCG brands.

“Although organic production is not easy, it's not expensive either,” says Fabio Claros, a farmer from La Casita in Honduras. “All our products and processes are organic. We make our own organic fertilisers which enrich the soil. Our coffee is the result of the whole ecosystem living in harmony: the birds, the bees, the forest, water, soil... everything contributes to our coffee and its unique taste.”

Organic farming at origin supports the health of the local wildlife across the board. Most coffee growing nations are centralised along the tropics, home to some of the world’s most biodiverse and complex ecosystems. The use of synthetic pesticides on crops puts the survival of native wildlife at risk.

Being a part of the organic community in New Zealand provides Kōkako with a wide support network and many opportunities to work with many like-minded local businesses. One of the company’s shareholders is organic pioneer and OANZ Chair Chris Morrison, who co-founded Karma Cola and All Good, two businesses Kōkako often collaborates with Fine and Dandy and OANZ members Ceres Organics and Nature Baby, to name a few.

Kōkako also has an ongoing relationship with Kelmarna Gardens, an organic community garden in the close-by suburb of Grey Lynn. Murphy and Morrison helped found a group of organic retailers and stakeholders in the Auckland region in mid-2017, who get together frequently to determine how to make organic products more accessible to the general public. Kōkako plays an active role in this group and in the group's participation in and promotion of Organic Week.

Not only do Kōkako hold themselves accountable to their organic and Fairtrade values, but they also pride themselves on being transparent in all aspects of their business.

“We’ve stuck to our values and never compromised,” says Murphy. “Over the years, so many people (especially in the tough times) told me to drop Fairtrade and organic but we were always really resolute about that and never faltered.

“I’m also really proud of our transparency as a company and our two sustainability reports. We’ve shown a lot of leadership in promoting sustainability alongside coffee.”

To learn more about Kōkako and its organic mission, visit their website.

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