Pitcairn Island Coffee
The Pitcairn Islands, the last of the United Kingdom’s territories in the Pacific Ocean, comprise four tiny volcanic islands of which only one is inhabited – Pitcairn. The island is home to the descendants of the HMS Bounty mutineers led by Christian Fletcher in 1789, and the Tahitians who accompanied them.
With a population of only 50 people from 9 families, the island is notable for being the least populated and most remote jurisdiction in the world. Pitcairn is accessible only once a month via supply boat from Gambier Island in French Polynesia to the chief settlement of Adamstown, and prior to gaining internet access in 2002, the people of Pitcairn had very limited contact with the outside world. The lack of development and declining population as islanders emigrate to New Zealand has become an ongoing problem for the future of Pitcairn and its ageing residents, which we hope the development of a coffee industry will change.
Coffee is not new to Pitcairn – the original coffee trees have been growing wild for 200 years, and islanders have always harvested small artisanal amounts for their own consumption. But recently a vanguard of residents and overseas supporters, keen to halt the decline of Pitcairn, have identified the potential for coffee production to boost Pitcairn’s private sector and attract new people to the island, taking advantage of the unusually good climate and volcanic soil.
Sea Island is part of a project to help Pitcairn develop their coffee industry, improve production, and fine-tune their processing technique. In 2024 we sent a new state-of-the-art huller to the island, and paid for the producing farmers to attend an extensive coffee training course with our partner in Costa Rica, Gonzalo Hernandez of Coffea Diversa Estate. Even in the project’s infancy, the quality of Pitcairn’s coffee is already superb, and the aim is to turn Pitcairn’s coffee production into a viable and sustainable industry.
We are exceptionally proud to be the sole coffee trader working with Pitcairn. This is a fabulously unique coffee and, with perseverance and sustained development, we believe it could eventually even rival St Helena – considered by many to be the best coffee in the world.
