Melbourne’s award-winning Black Bag Roasters looks to cash in on Vietnam's love affair with coffee

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Jan 18

Melbourne coffee company Black Bag Roasters has big plans to take its award-winning espresso to Southeast Asia. At the launch of Black Bag Roaster’s $11 million production in Truganina, COO Ben Romeril noted after returning from the region (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam) that Southeast Asia’s longstanding love affair with coffee has encouraged the company to set high sales goals and expectations for the region within the next two years. “Southeast Asia is in the midst of a love affair with coffee and our ability to post-blend coffee to perfectly match the palettes of our customers gives us a unique opportunity in this market,” says Romeril.

According to Statista, coffee consumption in Southeast Asia is expected to grow by approximately 8.5 % by 2025, and up to 85 % of all coffee is currently consumed out-of-home at restaurants, bars and cafes, presenting huge opportunities as this market is developing rapidly.

Find out more about Vietnam’s coffee culture

“Recreating Melbourne’s world-class coffee culture throughout the world - starting with Southeast Asia”

“The coffee we produce using our state-of-the-art Brambati roaster is world-class,’’ Mr Romeril said. The Italian-made and designed Brambati roaster installed at the Truganina plant is equipped with a catalytic converter that significantly reduces gases generated during the roasting process. At full production, it can produce up to 300 tonnes of coffee per week. Plus, at the new facility, Black Bag Roasters has the opportunity to produce coffee 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week, which means exporting coffee to Southeast Asia is now easier than ever. Not to forget its easy access to Melbourne’s port.

According to Romeril, “Melbourne produces some of the best coffee in the world. The World Barista champion is from Melbourne. We have a great opportunity to export our coffee and help recreate Melbourne’s world-class coffee scene throughout the world – starting with Southeast Asia.’’

Delivering a high-quality, environmentally, and socially responsible product

According to Romeril, Black Bag Roasters has worked hard to find efficient ways to deliver high-quality, environmentally and socially responsible products to coffee lovers. “We’re conscious of saying that we produce an agricultural product. We want to continue to ensure that what we produce is basically an organic product, we’re treating it as such and we’re having a positive impact, not a negative impact on the environment in terms of emissions, in terms of waste, in terms of water use. When I visit a coffee plantation, I am truly amazed by the beauty of growing coffee. Cultivated in warm mountainous regions. They are beautiful, important and ecological areas. Therefore, as a coffee roaster, I cannot help but feel a responsibility to take care of this product. And that we are doing everything we can to put this product in a cup and get it to people while minimizing our impact on the environment.”

Black Bag Roasters is also a Climate Active certified carbon-neutral organization. From the amount of gas released from the production of coffee to the size of their coffee bags (bag size has already been reduced by 7%), Black Bag Roasters also has ambitious plans lined up that include solar panel installations to introduce green energy.

Adapted from the original article by Vietnam Insider