世代を超えて栽培される赤いコーヒー豆　サウジの「ハウラニ」種

【ジザンＡＦＰ＝時事】サウジアラビア南西部ジザンに住むファラ・マルキさん（９０）にとって、コーヒー栽培は単なる仕事ではない。代々受け継がれてきた家業だ。（写真はファラ・マルキさん一家が栽培するハウラニ種のコーヒー豆。サウジアラビア南西部ジザンにあるコーヒー農園で）
　コーヒーは１５世紀ごろ、エチオピアからイエメンに渡り、そこから中東一帯に広まった。
　「父が祖父たちから受け継いだものを私が受け継ぎ、息子や孫たちに伝えてきました」。マルキさんは、コーヒー農園で木を剪定（せんてい）する親族の男性たちを眺めながらＡＦＰに語った。
　ジザンは、ハウラニ種という赤いコーヒー豆の産地として知られる。カルダモンやサフランなどを加えて煮出す黄色みを帯びたコーヒー（地元では「ガワ」と呼ばれている）は独特の風味がする。
　サウジアラビア政府は今年を「サウジコーヒーの年」と定め、普及活動を開始。すべてのレストランやカフェに、アラビアコーヒーではなく「サウジコーヒー」の名称を使うよう指示した。
　昨年末の時点で、国内にあるコーヒー農園は約６００か所、コーヒーの木は４０万本。豆の年間生産量は約８００トンに上った。さらに政府は、ハウラニ種の木を２０２５年までに１２０万本植える計画を進めている。
　マルキさんの９人の息子は、それぞれ農園、梱包（こんぽう）、流通、マーケティングなどの分野でコーヒー産業に携わっている。
　父と同じく伝統的な農作業服姿に花かんむりをかぶり、毎日農園で働くアハメドさん（４２）は、ハウラニ種のコーヒー豆については熟知していると話す。「どの農園も有機栽培で、化学物質は一切使用していません」
　ハウラニコーヒーの豆の年間生産量は約２．５トン。１キロ当たり２７～４０ドル（約３１００～４６００円）で販売されている。
　サウジアラビアはハウラニコーヒーの栽培について、国連教育科学文化機関（ユネスコ）の無形文化遺産への登録を目指している。
　実現すれば夢のような話だとアハメドさんは言う。「自分の息子やその息子たちにハウラニコーヒーを伝え、生活の糧としてくれることを願っています」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/02/25-11:43）

For Farah al-Malki, growing coffee plants in Saudi Arabia's southwestern region of Jizan is more than just a profession. It is a family tradition passed down from generation to generation.
The 90-year-old patriarch has a long history with coffee, which spread from Ethiopia to Yemen and then to the rest of the Middle East around the 15th century.
My father inherited it from his grandfathers, and I took over and passed it down to my sons and then on to my grandchildren, Malki told AFP, as he watched his male relatives prune trees.
Jizan is known for its red Khawlani coffee beans, often blended with cardamom and saffron to give a yellowish hue of coffee -- locally known as ghawa -- and a taste markedly different from the bitter black liquid drunk elsewhere in the Middle East and in the West.
It remains an integral part of Saudi culture, so much so that the government has designated 2022 as The Year of Saudi Coffee.
Served with dates in homes and royal palaces across the kingdom, breaking barriers of societal hierarchy, ghawa is considered a symbol of hospitality and generosity.
Donning the traditional dress of coffee farmers, a dark chemise shirt and ankle-length skirt known as a wizrah, along with a belt holding a dagger, Malki is still tending to the fields despite his age.
The biggest issues we used to have were the lack of water and support, said Malki.
But with the kingdom's desire to diversify its economy away from oil, alongside a social shift to transform the country's ultra-conservative image and open up to visitors and investors, the government last month began a campaign to promote its coffee.
It instructed all restaurants and cafes to use the term Saudi coffee instead of Arabic coffee.
Saudi Aramco, the largely state-owned oil company, announced plans to establish a coffee centre in Jizan using advanced irrigation techniques to improve agricultural capacity.
- UNESCO dream -
By the end of 2021, the kingdom had 400,000 coffee trees in 600 farms across the country, producing about 800 tonnes of coffee a year. That is a fraction of what Ethiopia produces but, according to domestic reports, Saudi Arabia plans to plant 1.2 million Khawlani trees by 2025.
Malki has nine sons, all of whom take part in the coffee industry, ranging from agriculture and packaging to transportation and marketing.
On the field every day is his 42-year-old son, Ahmed, who like his father is dressed in traditional farmer's clothing, complete with a headdress made of flowers.
He said he has an intimate knowledge of Khawlani coffee beans, explaining: All farms are organic and free of chemicals.
They produce about 2.5 tonnes of coffee beans a year, selling for between $27-$40 a kilogram ($12-$18 a pound).
Historian Yahya al-Malki, who is not related to the farm family, told AFP that the secret to the Khawlani beans lies in their cultivation in the Jizan region, where it is warm, humid and rainy.
Saudi Arabia has sought to include its cultivation of Khawlani coffee on the list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity maintained by the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO.
This, Ahmed said, would be a dream come true.
It will help in supporting farmers and preserving coffee trees as well as attracting foreign investors to the region, he told AFP.
I hope to pass this on to my sons and their sons, and pray it be a source of livelihood for them.