Tibor Pinci is holding a flamethrower at the rotating barrel of a repurposed cement mixer where green coffee beans are slowly turning brown.
"We call this an open roaster," Pinci said with a wide grin. "It involves a lot of precision because in just seconds the beans can be overdone."
Pinci knows from experience by the sound of the beans popping exactly when to stop.
"The coffee it makes will have an incredible full aroma, without the bitterness," he said.
Tibor Pinci roasts his beans using a flamethrower and a repurposed cement mixer. Source: SBS / Allan Lee
"I bought a nice little place here. It's only one hectare, but I have planted around 3,000 trees now," said Pinci, who is now in his 70s.
"I handpick all my cherries when they're beautifully ripe.
"The coffee we sell here is completely different to the usual big roasters."
Tibor Pinci started his coffee plantation in northern NSW 18 years ago. Source: SBS / Allan Lee
Yet locally grown coffee beans make up just a fraction of Australia's US$1.64 billion ($2.5 billion) coffee market. And that figure is expected to reach US$2.17 billion ($3.35 billion) by 2030.
Tobias Kretzschmar, a professor of plant breeding and genetics at the Southern Cross University, said: "We are looking at around 500 tonnes of [Australian coffee bean] production at the moment compared with around 100,000 tonnes of imported green beans."
As a result, most of the coffee sold in Australia is brewed from imported beans, mainly Arabica sourced from Brazil.
Small plantations like Tibor Pinci's are multiplying in Australia, as global coffee prices soar. Source: SBS / Allan Lee
At the same time, rising global financial market volatility — partly fuelled by trade tensions between the United States and China and fears of an economic slowdown — is adding to price instability, compounding the impact of supply-side pressures.
Paul Joules, an agriculture research analyst from Rabobank, said: "In April, we did see Arabica prices ease slightly but, nonetheless, on a year-on-year basis, we're still seeing prices around 100 per cent higher."
The surge in global coffee prices also adds an incentive for Australian growers to experiment with local production.
Tobias Kretzschmar, a professor of plant breeding and genetics at the Southern Cross University, is trialling new coffee trees for Australian growers. Source: SBS / Allan Lee
New coffee varieties fit for Australia
Scientists at Southern Cross University are trialling a range of coffee trees to determine which varieties have the potential for large-scale local production.
"We are part of a big project with World Coffee Research, which is trialling 20 to 30 coffee varieties all around the globe," Kretzschmar said.
"So, we piggybacked that global project and we have 25 varieties in Australia so far, coming from around 11 countries: Some are Asian, some African and some South American."
To succeed here, coffee trees must be able to thrive to local conditions.
"Our aim for Australia is to find new varieties that are better suited for this environment and better suited for the mechanised conditions of coffee farming in Australia," Kretzschmar said.
Most coffee crops are grown in Queensland or northern NSW, where warm weather and rain create challenges.
"Growers put their money on a variety that's much too vigorous for this environment; it just keeps growing," he said.
"Regular pruning means a lot of work. And if the tree is stressed, it won't produce [a coffee crop] the next year.
"So, that means the old varieties require a lot of work and suffer yield losses."
Most coffee crops in Australia are grown in north Queensland or northern NSW, where warm weather and rain pose challenges. Source: SBS / Allan Lee
After five years of trials, Kretzschmar thinks so.
"We are looking at semi-dwarf varieties that are more easily machine harvested," he said.
"The next stage is to take two or three promising varieties that we believe can outcompete the current varieties and trial them at scale."
Scientists are also experimenting with coffee styles to find flavours with mass appeal. For clues, Ben Liu, a researcher from Southern Cross University, turned to a unique taste wheel.
Ben Liu, a researcher from Southern Cross University, is experimenting with different coffee styles to discover flavours of mass appeal. Source: SBS / Allan Lee
"We run a very large coffee panel multiple times. We collect around 6,000 different coffee descriptors from these panel members.
"For example, the acidity, the body, the aftertaste.
"Based on those characters of the coffee, we can get a better understanding when we're actually tasting coffee."
Benefits of locally grown coffee
Locally grown coffee offers additional benefits — importing beans from Brazil contributes significantly to the industry's carbon footprint.
"You can get your zero-mile coffee in Byron Bay from someone that grows it, ferments it, roasts it and produces it," Kretzschmar said.
"This gives you a cup of coffee that was produced within sight of where you're sitting."
Cafe owner Kim Towner uses locally grown coffee beans. Source: SBS / Allan Lee
"I wanted to buy as close to home as I could, and it's just a win-win all around for everybody," she said.
"It has been a real passion of mine since I first went into the cafe business.
"Growers get paid fairly for it. We know that it hasn't had to travel across the ocean.
"And if we can source from our local area, we can make a big difference to how we look after the planet."
Pinci is proud to supply to local outlets.
"Australian coffee tastes completely different, probably because of the climate which creates a beautiful bean.
"And the coffee does not have any bitterness, which is why my customers love it.
"That, and of course, the precision roasting with the little flamethrower," he said.
