AN ENGINEER who befriended a group of coffee farmers when travelling in the Sumatran jungle has set up a roastery in a North Yorkshire village to help them.

David Beattie travelled to Sumatra, in Indonesia after deciding to move on from his long-term job in engineering. He began his journey with a train from Middlesbrough, travelling across Europe, Hong Kong, Russia, Mongolia and China before arriving in Indonesia.

Whilst in Sumatra he stayed with some coffee farmers he had befriended and learnt about the coffee production. But while doing this became concerned at the pittance they were being paid, earning barely enough to survive on.

On his return from his travels he decided to do something about it, and set up his own coffee roastery with his partner Tracy Lee, in an old granary at East Rounton, near Northallerton. The company pays a fair price to the coffee producers in Sumatra and elsewhere in the world.

“I saw how proud they were of the coffee they produced” said David.

“I became really concerned for this farmers cooperative, as they could barely survive on what they were paid, especially for the long, back-breaking work they did. I wanted to help these farmers, but I couldn’t buy all their coffee.

“They needed to sell direct to the market and cut out the middleman. And this is where the coffee roastery idea developed, and a positive way to help them.”

Rounton Coffee started producing speciality coffee in small batches, roasted on demand for retail and commercial suppliers. They also sold their products at farmers’ markets and found customers and cafes were so interested in what they were doing, they began to invite them to the granary to taste the different coffees and watch the coffee being roasted.

Rounton Coffee Roasters are finalists in the Deliciouslyorkshire Taste Awards, for their Granary Blend coffee and also finalists in the Specialist Retail Category for the Flavours of Herriot Awards.

For more information visit their website; www.rountoncoffee.co.uk