Ponaire’s Traceability and Quality Policy

Ponaire sources Certified Organic coffees from Peru and Honduras. Ponaire can trace all their coffees back to specific farms and through their 18-year relationship with InterAmerican Coffee, their 10-year relationship with Belco for El Salvadorian and other speciality coffees, and their 8-year relationship with DR Wakefield for all Organic Coffees and many other speciality coffees (Honduran, Costa Rican, Indonesian, and Swiss Water Decaf). Ponaire are confident that ethical, fair, and sustainable practices are in operation on all the farms from whom they source beans, and they can trace all our coffees back to specific farms. All batch numbers on bags of coffee can be traced back to the farm where the beans were grown, the broker who delivered them, the roaster and roast date. All their raw beans are delivered in recyclable inner bags – the outer sacs are compostable.

Ponaire’s Environmental and Sustainability Policy

Ponaire is not only committed to Sustainability and Traceability of their Coffees and ensuring a responsible Environmental Policy at our Roastery, they have implemented many initiatives to ensure that our everyday actions have a positive impact to the environment.

Sustainability is an important criterium they use when sourcing their beans. As a company they are focused on superior quality and customer service. They source our beans from producers around the world who practice ethical, fair, and sustainable practices. They have visited many of the farms to see for themselves that good environmental policies are being practiced.

Many of the coffees they buy are from farms that Ponaire has visited. In 2015, they visited Finca Altamira and San Isadora in El Salvador and built a good relationship with the farmer, Humberto Barrera and his family. He has since passed the farm onto his son, whom they have known and worked with for over 7 years. Ponaire sponsors the village’s two soccer teams, and they wear jerseys with Ponaire Logos. Ponaire have been buying the entire speciality Arabica crop from Finca Altamira and San Isadora since 2016 through Belco – based in Bordeaux, Ethiopia, and Colombia. They donate 10 cents per lb of coffee they purchase from the farms back to sustainability projects on the farms. In 2022, the farmers planted over 400 trees, installed 15 beehives, began growing chocolate and other crops to diversify, and a new set of jerseys for the local football teams. The farm owners also gave both farm managers 1 hectare of land each besides their houses to grow vegetables and keep chickens, goats, and other small livestock for their own consumption.

In 2018 Ponaire visited Colombia and the farms in Tolima-Ibague, where they source Excelso Arabica beans for their Single Origin Colombian coffee. Visiting and touring Cenicafé, Colombia’s 80-year-old National Coffee Research Centre was one of the highlights of the trip. It is one of the world’s leading centres for scientific coffee research, looking for innovative ways to increase sustainability, improve quality, raise yields, mitigate the effects of pests and plant diseases, and much more. As part of the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC), their mission is to improve the lives of the hundreds of thousands of small family farmers who grow coffee for export. In February of 2023, Ponaire returned to Colombia to further develop our relationship with the farm managers and understand what new climate change initiatives they have implemented. Two years ago they started planting avenues of flowering scrubs in between the coffee plants for cross-pollination. This has resulted in a better yield from the coffee plants.

Ponaire understands the importance of social responsibility. They support their local community in many ways – regularly donating to various charities including Milford Hospice, Daughter’s of Charity, or the local GAA and schools. Ponaire often have students in Transition Year in the Café and Roastery for work experience. They also do talks to local schools and universities. As a producer, Ponaire also try to support other local producers, and businesses.

In 2022, Ponaire purchased a new CR-35 Diedrich Roaster and Reicat After Burner. These new state-of-the-art precision machines have increased capacity by 45% while reducing energy usage by 40% and our emissions by over 60%. What little refuse there is from roasting (chaff) is compostable and often given to our local Tidy Towns Committee or local farmers/gardeners. Coffee Grinds from Ponaire’s adjoining café are donated.

In July 2023, Ponaire installed Solar Panels on their Warehouse with a capacity of 14.25 kWh. Since installation they have generated 13,306.25 kWh and offset 13.27 ton of Carbon. Ponaire have been using and re-selling compostable cups and lids for over 8 years but encourage our café customers to use re-useable cups. They sell Ponaire Branded re-useable cups at discounted prices and give discounts on every refill. In 2025, Ponaire will introduce new 100% recyclable packaging for their bags of roasted coffee.

They roast 7 coffees year-round and offer an additional 12-15 others as featured coffees seasonally. Our full range of coffees are available in their Roastery/Café in Newport Tipperary, their Coffee Chocolate Shop in Adare Village, Limerick or online at https://www.ponaire.ie/ponaire-online-shop/.

Awards

Ponaire’s coffees have been awarded over 25 Gold Stars in the Guild of Fine Foods Great Taste Awards. We were the first coffee roaster ever to receive 3 Gold Stars for our Indian Blend in 2009.