Adelaide-based sustainable coffee advocate Dr Nicole Motteux has a lifetime’s-worth of industry knowledge and is passionate about coffee’s positive impact in communities.
You recently won the Community Champion Award at the 2026 Coffee Industry Heroes Awards. What did it mean to you to have your work recognised in this way?
When my name was called, I thought about the people behind it – farmers, women at sorting tables, cooperatives, and small businesses. We are all part of one extended chain – from farm through exporters and importers to roasters, baristas, and consumers – each linked to the next.
Growing up on a coffee farm showed me how closely production and markets are linked. My work now sits at that intersection: evidence, livelihoods, and decision-making across Africa, Madagascar, Asia, and the Pacific.
I focus on what works in practice – helping small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) build simple systems to engage directly with markets.
Coffee sits within water, soil, farming, communities, and markets. When these come together, things work well. When they do not, quality slips, access narrows, and income drops.
What is the biggest lesson from your 20-plus years working with smallholder farmers and in the coffee industry, given your background growing up on an Arabica plantation in Zimbabwe?
That coffee carries people’s lives.
I learnt this growing up, and I see it in every country I work in. A harvest – its quality and access to markets – determines key outcomes: school fees, food, and whether a household continues.
Coffee supports more than 25 million households, most on small, family-run farms. Yet farmers often receive only a small share of the final value – typically between 5 and 15 per cent, even though most coffee is grown on just a few hectares.
For many families, coffee is their only income. It can be stored, moved, and sold, unlike crops that perish quickly. It brings cash into the household and, in some cases, helps people rebuild.
It sits within a wider system: water, land, and farming shape how it grows and how it tastes, and it often sits alongside forests, wildlife, and fragile landscapes. That bigger picture matters.
I have seen coffee carried for days across difficult terrain to reach collection points. That shows its value.
Coffee often supports a whole family. When it works well, it brings real stability.
That is where I focus my work – in practice, for people, and the environment.
You have extensive knowledge of the global coffee industry, but what do you enjoy most about the local industry in Australia?
What I value in Australia is the focus on quality. There are skilled roasters, experienced cuppers, and professionals who understand flavour and process. Australia has produced world champions – a result of years of hard work, passion, and commitment. Standards are clear. The system is consistent and works well.
The next step is to establish a stronger link between the cup here and the work at the origin. Too often, coffees are blended or labelled only by country – Ethiopian or Indonesian – and lose their identity. You could be drinking coffee from Laos, or Myanmar, and not know it.
In wine, we would not accept that – coffee should be no different.
What more would you like to see more of in the Australian coffee industry, through a sustainability lens?
I would like to see the narrative shift – to stand behind farmers, SMEs, and cooperatives, and recognise how they operate in practice.
It is easy to view these systems through our own context and assume solutions, such as building a school or clinic. The starting point is to understand how they operate – how decisions are made day-to-day. Farmers, SMEs, and cooperatives make those decisions on land, water, labour, quality, and markets. They know what works locally, and what does not, and have priorities from improving the environment to strengthening livelihoods. People want to be heard. They do not want to be told what they need.
It starts with listening, then working with what is already there – understanding how people farm, process, and sell, and the environment in which they operate. Bringing this together helps ensure the work is relevant and holds over time.
This article appears in the June 2026 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
