How New Caledonian Coffee is
pp. 41-42 · Read in the full issue
Graded
Letter to the Editor IN your review of October you write: “The announcement recently that the New Caledonian Government in tends to grade the Colony’s 1941-42 coffee crop is commented upon favourably by Sydney agents”. Further on you give quotations for grades “A” and “B”.
Such statements are not quite correct, as the New Caledonian coffee has been graded for many years past, and the grades are not “A” and “B”.
Sydney agents will certainly like to know something about the grading, which is very severe, and rather mathe matical, as you will see, the grade being determined by the number of blemishes contained in a sample of 500 grammes (nearly 18 oz.) taken from the lot of coffee to be exported. So whether the parcel be one bag, 10 bags or a hundred, the sample drawn from the bags is al ways 500 grammes in weight. As everyone knows, our coffee is exported in bags containing 60 kilos (133 lb. net) according to market regulations in Havre (France).
Arabica
No. 1 grade.—Dry, sound, homogeneous coffee, of uniform size and colour (bluish green) with a sui generis odour, contain ing no stones, no foreign matter, no black beans, no husks nor unhusked fruits, nor crushed or broken beans.
No. 2 grade.—Dry, sound, homogeneous coffee, of a size representing, on the whole, the fair average size of the season’s crop, with a true sui generis odour, of uniform colour, containing no stones, no foreign matter, no husks nor unhusked fruits, not more than 3 black or blackish beans and not more than 5 brownish, parched, crushed or broken beans.
No. Z grade.—Dry, sound, homogeneous
coffee, without any bad smell, of a size representing, on the whole, the average of the season, of uniform colour, not answering the conditions required by grades 1 and 2 but not containing more than 3 per cent, of blemishes.
No. 4 grade.—Dry, sound, homogeneous coffee, not answering the conditions re quired for grades 1, 2 and 3, but not con taining more than 15 per cent, of blemishes.
As it will be seen, it is exceedingly difficult to obtain No. 1 grade. As 500 grammes of coffee contain about 3,500 beans, a few more broken or crushed beans than is allowed by No. 2 throws the parcel into No. 3 grade, in which a maximum of 100 blemishes is allowed.
It is therefore obvious that No. 2 grade is a high-class coffee.
Robusta
For New Caledonian Robusta coffee, only three grades are provided. The No. 3 of Arabica does not exist.
No. 1 grade.—Same as for Arabica coffee.
No. 2 grade.—Same as for Arabica coffee.
No. 3 grade.—As it comes. Dry, sound, homogeneous coffee, not answering the conditions required for grades 1 and 2 but not containing more than 15 per cent, of blemishes.
Well, 15 per cent, of blemishes means 500 or 525 in a sample of 500 grammes.
A No. 3 Robusta may be very good coffee, as it may contain only 6 crushed or broken grains. Here, again, it is obvious the grading is too severe and such coffee should be sampled by the buyer in Sydney.
I am, etc.,
Nc Coffee.
Noumea, 15/11 1941.
Mr. C. H. W. Larsen, private secretary to Judge H. F. Ayson, CMG (Resident Commissioner of the Cook Islands) is at present in New Zealand with his family, on four months’ furlough.
Crown Prince Tuboutoa, and his brother Prince Jione Gu, sailed from Sydney this month to spend the Christmas holidays in Tonga. The brothers will return to Australia in the New Year. Prince Tuboutoa will continue his legal studies at Sydney University, and Prince Jione will study tropical agriculture in Queensland. The Pacific Islands Society arranged a farewell function for them on December 8.