responsible sourcing of beans

[lovethatcoffee]

I know that organic, fair trade, shade grown certifications are a good way to ensure that the farming practices are globally responsible and that the farmers are compensated appropriately. It seems to me that in this day of specialty coffee, many roasters/importers are looking to develop relationships with farmers and work with them to keep good crops coming year after year. My question is: how important are the certifications when you buy from businesses like Sweet Marias or Bohdi Leaf who seem to take a lot of care in selecting farmers who are doing the right thing already?

 

[slurp]

Most of the certificates are money related. Anyone one can get any cert by paying money. As well most coffee that is advertised as organic or fair trade is not. Fair Trade coffee has to come from farms that pay their works a certain amount. This results in $30 per pound coffee, if it is less, more than likely it is not really fair trade. Most small roasters do not have the resources ($$$) to be flying to farms and importuning beans. In general 98% of all specialty coffee come from big warehouse distributers in the USA.

 

[lovethatcoffee]

Interesting. What do you know about the middle sized coffee businesses like blue bottle, four barrel, etc. They seem to be very involved in their sourcing. Is what they do, better than an organic or fair trade label since they seem to be more involved in the farming? I seems to mer that a specialty coffee producer with closer ties to a roaster/business would be better practice and money wise than the certification. Or, do these coffee business just try to paint a rosy picture?

 

[TheKillingJoke]

While I do agree with Slurp, who said the price is pretty high, not all fair trade coffee are money-based. Quite a few decent coffee companies don't pay for it

 

[Bardo]

Also look into Thrive Farmers, which is a new coffee importer, who claims to have cut the middle man out. They work directly with the farmers and involve them in the processing and shipping of the beans, and they share the money that roasters pay. The price strikes me a bit higher, but if the model is real and sustainable it will support better lives for the farmers and reduce damage to the environment. Anyone bought from these folks yet? They are out of Atlanta.

 

[ensoluna]

there are so much talk about organic / fair trade / rain forest certification & about USA importers directly buying from small specialty farms...etc.

I know bit about this matters because I deal with this in daily bases and also this was the exact reason my partner (Daniel Yancor, he is a Guatemalan coffee farmer & distributor in Guatemala) and I got our company established as specialty coffee exporting & "coffee camp" ensoluna coffee academy.

10 years ago, Daniel owned a farm in Zunil area in Guatemala and since coffee pricing was very low and he wanted to get more profit out of his coffee production. Big cooperatives & exporters encouraged him to switch his farm to Organic, promising him that he will make a lot more money. so he switched, but what we do not know is that in order to be a organic coffee farm certified, you have to "start using organic matters" 3 years before it gets certified. also, when you use organic to grow coffee, the production shrinks down about 30% to 40% less. (coffee tree does not grow nor produce not as much as regular farm coffee).

so, for 3 years, he was losing even more money, coffee price was low and his production was shrinking every year.
finally, he got Organic certified after 3 years. now, guess what?! Big cooperative / exporting company pays $30 more per one hundred lbs. he products specialty coffee (SHB 1500 meters high altitude, Bourbon/Caturra). the price for one bag is around $260.00. with organic certification, exporters gave him $30 more because they is how much exporters can charge foreign coffee importers.

so, he was losing 30% to 40% in production, but making about 10% more due to organic coffee...... Do the math.
basically in two years, he was about to go broke. He wanted to go back to regular coffee growing, but big companies threatened him that if he goes back, they will not buy any coffee from him at all.

So, He gave them the middle finger and went back to regular coffee and teamed up with me & Hector Gonzalez (very well known figure in Guatemala. the one and only World cup taster champion in 2010 London in Guatemala & has great connection with Anacafe / ACE / CoE) to make a specialty coffee exporting company and School for Guatemalan and foreigners.

And for being 100% Organic, that is NOT POSSIBLE. because Anacafe or other Gov't organization allows organic farmers to use pesticide and other related chemicals to kill insects and other diseases. Farmers can not kill them with ORGANIC STUFF!!!!!

Now, as for US green bean importers buying directly from farmers, that is hardly likely.

we, Ensoluna S.A, are registered & legal green bean exporting company (actually we are the biggest green bean export company in Quetzaltenango which is second biggest city in Guatemala), but Gov't does not issue exporting license due to their own benefits. Only very handful of huge exporters or politically connected companies have the license from Gov't (I am sure that they give some back to them under the table.... like all good 3rd world countries do) and in order for us to export our beans, we have to pay them $20 per 100 lbs bags to use the licenses of other big licensed company. So, I highly doubt that any small specialty farmers can obtain the licenses and export directly. What the big company does is that they invite USA importers to the small farms and make them think that they are buying directly from farmers and that farm. But 90% of time, beans get mixed and changed in the process of collecting and shipping, specially for bigger companies.

Let me know if you have any other related questions.
thanks
PS: by the way, for Fairtrade, we pay $25 per bag. and for Rain Forest, it is one time fee, $8000,00 to Gov't, per year. No one actually inspects much. It is mostly formality and pieces of papers, very expensive pieces of papers.

it is marketing method that only gets big company more rich / and Gov't people.

 

[keppa837]

Hello again , very well written, I believe the same goes on in Colombia especially with the smaller cafecultores, like my wifes family, who are unable to afford to pay into the politics to get there product out of there country like we do here in the U.S. Ensoluna , would you PM me , sure would like to speak with you. Have a great day and a better tomorrow.

 

[keppa837]

Lovethatcoffee , you bought up an excellant point for discussion , thnx

 

[peterjschmidt]

I'm curious, Alex (ensoluna), what do the non-organic farmers put on their coffee that would make the plants produce 40% more cherries?



Bardo,

I too like the Thrive business model. A couple years ago I cupped several coffees from them, and none of them were acceptable - I would barely rate them as specialty-grade. That may have changed since then, but ya never know. The system only works with farmers who can afford to let their coffee sit in Atlanta until it's sold. I'm not sure if Thrive gives them a stipend or a holding fee, like a future on the sale, but I don't think so.

 

[ensoluna]

I'm curious, Alex (ensoluna), what do the non-organic farmers put on their coffee that would make the plants produce 40% more cherries?

Good question, Peter. I do not know EXACTLY what Daniel is using for his farm now. So, I just emailed him asking what kind of fertilizers he is using for his farm. please give me couple of days, i will find out and give you full information.

Guatemala has 8 regions. I believe each region uses slightly different fertilizers because huehuetenango has dry and volcanic soil with high altitude. but Coban has wet and humid climate at lower altitude. So those farms use different fertilizers for the coffee trees, obviously.

As I know, Daniel's farm is located very high altitude, 7000 feet high where Quetzaltenango is at. I am sure that you know, but since few members might not know, so let me explain. Higher altitude coffee tree does not produce as much coffee as lower altitude. they take much longer to mature, however, it give much better quality beans, harder, denser and complex characteristics. So, for these farms, when they use organic only, loses up to 40% production.

however, for cheaper coffee at lower altitude, they produce a lot more coffee, but can not really say that they are specialty coffees. for them, it loses about 20 to 25%. but lower altitude farm that produces cheaper beans normally do not do organic anyway. No one is willing to pay for $30 extra. because their beans sell at much lower pricing than specialty beans and does not make any difference to make it organic.

I have heard that for average SHB (strictly hard bean) farms lose about 30%.

 

[ensoluna]

I'm curious, Alex (ensoluna), what do the non-organic farmers put on their coffee that would make the plants produce 40% more cherries?.

hello Peter,
i check this out for you with my partner in Guatemala.
he said that for conventional farm, in his area, they use "Triple 15 (nitrogen, potash, phosphate, sulfur composite)". however, depends on where the farm is located at, and what kind of soil they have their coffee trees planted, what kind of weather...etc, the farmers use bit different fertilizers.

Also, asked about Organic Fertilizer. He said that most common one is Lombricompost (in Engllish, it is Vermicompost) basically it is composed of earth worms (red wigglers, white worms...etc).

finally, i asked him about why organic coffee tree produce much less than conventional. he gave me an example.
it is like a baby who only eats rice & cheap & bad food, nothing else. he grows, but he lacks of many nutrition and does not grow well. this is organic fertilizer.
on the other hand, for conventional, baby is getting rice, vegie, beef, fish plus all types of vitamins. So he grows bigger and stronger than organic baby.
Very strange comparison and example.

but basically, he is telling me that Triple 15 has way more essential & pure nutrition than Lombricompost.

if i was him to give myself the example, i would have said "Bionic super man (created in a advanced genetic laboratory by scientists) vs. me (a regular person who can barely run few miles.... :+(

Peter, hopefully, i have kept my promise and answered all of your questions. if you have more, just let me know.
thanks
alex

PS : finally i asked him how much was the triple 15 vs vermicompost. he said that triple 15 is $40 per 100 lbs bag. and vermicompost is $10 per 100 lbs bag.
I guess that Bionic super man is at least 4 times stronger than me, ha ha ha