When the St. Helena coffee revival began, the island s prospects as a coffee exporter were nil. St. Helena, being a British Overseas Territory, found itself on the wrong side of the International Coffee Agreement. Blissfully unaware of the complexity, Henry embarked on a crusade to have the rule changed to recognize St. Helena as a coffee exporter. I ran into a wall of bureaucracy, Henry recalls. World trade in coffee is controlled in a way similar to oil.
Most people don t realize that coffee is second only to oil as the world s largest commodity.
This is when, in 1994, the Coffee Company set about rejuvenating existing plantations. At that stage there was about five to six acres of coffee at Stagg s Head coffee ground. The trees were about 40 years old and amid a lot of jungle. We did some secondary pruning but could not prune heavily because it was the only source of coffee that I had at the time. Since then, three new coffee areas have been developed - Napoleon s Valley Estate and Bluemans Estate.