Australian coffee farming has never experienced consumer attention more than it has in the past 12 months. Call it a rise in agritourism, food tourism, the paddock to plate or crop to cup movement, whatever the motive, Australian consumers are seeking out single origin Australian grown coffee in droves.
“While the country was forced into lockdown with an increased volume of people working from home, it gave people the chance to think about food security and where their food comes from. They looked into their backyard, did a turnaround, and are craving Australian coffee,” says Rebecca Zentveld of Zentveld’s Coffee in Newrybar, New South Wales.
Zentveld’s Coffee has experienced “exponential demand” from the home market, mailing out countless orders of one to two kilograms of roasted coffee each week.
“People genuinely say, ‘finally, we’ve found Australian grown coffee. We didn’t know it existed but now that we do, and as long as it tastes good, we’ll be back’. We’ve grown our repeat orders from our new coffee friends, and you see them experimenting and trying different roast profiles across our range,” Rebecca says.
Australian farmer Jos Webber of Kahawa Estate in Australia’s Byron Bay hinterland has also experienced incredible demand for his home grown and roasted coffee, and has documented online customer feedback from December 2020 to February 2021.
That feedback includes customers thanking him for helping them get through the last stages of lockdown, others wanting to support local businesses, some wanting to fill Christmas stockings with Australian made and
