Regional Flavours: For a country obsessed with coffee, we pay little attention to our producers

FOR a country obsessed with the stuff, Australia largely ignores its coffee producers.

FOR a country obsessed with the stuff, Australia largely ignores its coffee producers.

Former Zimbabwe couple Ian and Marion ­MacLaughlin are leading the Queensland charge to make locally grown beans as palatable to the local market as “exotic’’ coffee from overseas.

Their Skybury Plantation at Mareeba, on the Atherton Tableland, is now Australia’s largest exporter of Arabica coffee.

Farm manager Mark MacLaughlin on the Skybury Coffee Plantation in north Queensland. PIC: Mark Calleja

Ian, Skybury’s director, said while most of the coffee produced from Skybury’s 90,000 coffee trees was exported to Asian and European markets, a yen for local coffee was starting to kick in.

“The consumption in Europe varies very little from year to year and they are, by and large, the largest consumers of Australian-grown ­coffee,’’ he said.

“However, we have started to see in the last 18 months more interest from Australian distributors.”

Farm manager Mark MacLaughlin, operating a quarter of a million dollar harvester in Skybury fields over the past few weeks, say the farm has long been dedicated to natural farming methods.

“In Australia we have some of the highest standards of farming practices anywhere in the world, and there is no doubt that goods produced in this country have been flagged as better quality, with a cleaner and greener image.”

Regional Flavours is one Queensland’s biggest food festivals featuring free entertainment from celebrity chefs and industry experts as well as fresh produce from more than 80 of Queensland’s best providores. It is on at South Bank this weekend.