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in New Zealand. And with a population of Directors Jamie Hodson and Carmen "-astro believe in the quality and sustainability of organics. . / t h . n ? ^^^ ""''"^'^ '^e G(irmany, with^iOOmilNonCitizens, hasl..than'iOO Faced with these numbers, it wouldn't

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C ^ e n Castro, husband Joop Verbeek, and business partner Jamie Hodsor, have done only organic and fairly traded coffee sourced pnmar,ly from the Peruvian hig^.iands.Tfne rnffJ " ; , "^'^"'-'-"^M organic certified ^. M ! ! ' : " _^^^.^^^'^"^ (^"^ th.3 only roaster

When we started the business in 2003 wewe always planning to sticKstnctly to only organic coffee for various reasons " savs until 2007 untl we h all the ingredients in il 2007 until had

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including supply to supermarkets" " The certification comes almost as a bonus for our clients as we try to absorb the ce., ca on premiums as much as possible and.,fata,passonthepremiLmsatcost" As well as being her countr/ of birth Peru was Chosen for its vanety of clir.ates and s ^ ^ and our ability to maintain cose r e l a t i o n s h " ' with growers explains Castro. "Coffee has more variety th,an grapes ^ when you look for it you will -ind so much vanety in quality coffee and thrcugh our connections we have access to some real gemsOntopofthat,alotofitisort.anl.L

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we like to improve the standing of Peru as a county Of quality foods. A p a r t l m h ^ n g control over the supply Chain that few roasters 2 6 N/tlciu TObusine

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global trends are slowly making more sense to people as part of a more sustainable form of consumption. "When we originally set up the business we did not expect that global warming would accelerate so much," says Castro. "Certainly large scale, non-organic coffee growing in the fringes of the Amazon, considered to be the single biggest regulator of global climate in the world, does not help. "Organic coffee growing is almost without exception, and to the best of our knowledge always, shade grown - growers leave or plant larger trees to protect the soil and coffee plants and to create mioro-scale self-regulating biotopesand micro-climates."

in New Zealand can match, Jamie is ohe of the pioneers in this country's roasting industry." Castro says they set up Inca-Fe with an eye on expanding their assortment of organic food products and with an eye on export. "To support our coffee activity we thought that we should have access to quality coffee maohines and before we started roasting we secured the exclusive distributorship of VFA maohines, a top selling brand in Spain. We are now slowly seeing the fruits of some of these supporting activities." The Inca-Fe directors believe New Zealand is somewhat isolated when it comes to mainstream consumer education in organic and fair trade practices. These

Castro believes that many people now accept that organic farming is more in balance with nature. "It's now accepted that the organic food industry is producing some of the best quality gounnet foods, something people in Franoe have always known. So in a way the ma-ket is self-educating." Inca-Fe currently offers coffee connoisseurs two flavours, which can be purchased online at www.inca-fe.co.nz or at selected supermarkets, cafes, restaurants, and specialty organic and deii stores. The brand is based on colours and abstract shapes from traditional Peruvian cultures. Glenn Baker is editor of NZBusiness.

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