Ethiopia Modernizing

A brief update on the current Ethiopia harvest (2015/16)

The Harvest So Far

• Our partners report that coffee has arrived late to the wet mills due to late rains or in some areas, no rain at all. The current lack of rain is expected to be one of the worst droughts in Ethiopia. Some believe it will be even worse than the one that affected the country back in the 1980s.
• With the rains coming late, cherry maturity has been delayed, meaning that in most areas picking began just three weeks ago.
• Coffee cherry quality seems to be good overall so far.

Prices

• The prices being offered for coffee cherries in most of Ethiopia have started at an average level but has slowly been climbing in most areas, especially in the Yirgachefe region, which has been the case for the last several years.
• Coffee has arrived to the auction with high prices that have managed to sell. We are not sure if the market can pay the fair price given the Cost of Coffee here Locally. But the usual Exporters that use the FX to Import, as the ones pulling the market lower.

Changes at the ECX

• Electronic tagging (geotagging) is supposed to be rolling out this season so that every bag sold through the auction will come with a barcode that will provide traceability up to the washing station it came from.

The hope for this new system is to create a more accessible system for purchasing. For the last 8 years

only unions and coops

 have been able to provide traceability to the international buyers, severely inhibiting transparency for many buyers of Ethiopian coffee.

• Coffee, as a commodity, has officially left the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Trade and is now headed by a new Coffee & Tea Authority under the umbrella of the Ministry of Agriculture. This means that coffee will have ONE authority which is significant, as over the last 8 years several conflicting institutions  oversaw the coffee sector, which created many delays in the process of exporting and more. Let's hope that this more unified/simplified body will lead to easier export processes!

• The ECX is also planning an online purchasing system. Aside from the inevitable delays from implementing such a system, this is a very positive change for exporters. Previously, it was very difficult to stop private agreements between sellers and exporters. Now, hopefully, the best quality will be equally available to all buyers.

While all of these changes are positive they will certainly present their own challenges and frustrations. Luckily the general trend is moving in positive directions. Even if the above is implemented in fits and starts.

The Inevitable Chaos that is Burundi Coffee Buying

I'm supposed to be writing an article about my recent experiences travelling in Colombia. It was my first time travelling there (as well as in Brazil, where I later went) and having only experienced being in some of East Africa as a coffee buyer, these trips illuminated so much for me. There are many exciting developments taking place within the specialty coffee communities in both countries and learning some of the historical backgrounds behind the current innovations I was introduced to provided some much needed nuance to my perspective on the world of specialty coffee and the major roles Colombia and Brazil both play.

As is so often the case, events taking place here and now end up occupying the forefront of a place's work flow to the expense of other equally important and pressing matters. In the case of importing coffee, and taking into account the various harvest seasons CCS' schedule revolves around, Burundi should already be out of the major part of the current workflow because the coffee should have landed in our warehouse during the summertime and roasters should be well into their inventories of the current harvest. Although there are always delay-inducing minutiae that creep into every shipment from every origin, Burundi is one of those origins where things are predictably unpredictable and where one can reliably expect to have their patience tested day-after-day (I wish that were an exaggeration) during the export process.

When one chooses to import Burundian coffees, they're signing up to ride a logistical, and at least for me, emotional rollercoaster. This year the country is experiencing the culmination of a political storm that has been brewing since 2005 when the latest in a series of civil wars the country has endured, ended. Turmoil is depressingly cyclical in this country and this year it came via the heavily disputed presidential election. When working with a country that is so complicated and has so much going against it, it can be difficult not to become numb to the constant flow of shocking news that comes from partners living and breathing all that chaos.

As an importer whose main goal is to provide roasters with the very best on offer from the beautiful array of stellar coffees out there, working with Burundi has sometimes felt like an inconceivable origin to take on. To be clear, the biggest reason Collaborative Coffee Source started working in Burundi is because we came across coffees that couldn't be ignored. But throughout our short history of working there, plenty of situations have arisen where deciding to continue working in Burundi has been a source of reappraisal within the team.

All of the above is a prelude to the current situation we are faced with in trying to move our first container from Burundi to Antwerp this year. Hopefully the following will help our roasting friends understand how truly complex importing coffee can be and how the act of purchasing coffee can clearly be life altering for producers. For simplicity's sake, I'll narrate the story of this container by way of a timeline.

July 2015: Final cuppings and screenings of microlots making up the proposed container are completed and negotiations on contracts commence.

The presidential election is completed and protests, which have been occurring since late-winter, escalate into riots after the results are announced. Both of CCS' partnering exporters flee the country with their families, along with tens of thousands of other Burundians.

August 2015: Milling, packaging and preparations of export documents begin and are expected to be completed by month's end.

Our exporters travel in and out of the country to oversee the process.

September 2015: Export document preparation continues amidst continued political turmoil and violence. The shipment is delayed weekly as ARFIC's (Burundi's national coffee board) office shuts down and the directors in charge of signing and stamping export documents scatter throughout the country and our exporting partners are charged with locating them. One of the two exporters reports travelling to nine different people, in order to obtain 29 signatures and stamps for our microlots.

October 2015: As of October 20th (today), we find ourselves awaiting ONE last signature for one of the 13 microlots we're shipping in this container. We need to get the container out of the dry mill and out to Dar es Salaam port for departure to Antwerp. We were assured at the end of last week that all the necessary paperwork was completed and in order...this proved to be illusory, as we experience time and again...

The conflict in Bujumbura (Burundi's capital) continues and moves too close for comfort as one of the exporter's has his home assailed by bullets. He chooses not to publicize this, perhaps because it does not change the fact that his family and their cherry producing partners simply need to see shipments move ahead and don't see the point in inviting sympathy as it doesn't change reality in any way. These are my speculations, anyway.

In the meantime, Tanzania has a presidential election coming up on Sunday and yesterday the Dar es Salaam port authority issued us warnings about potential strife that may affect the reception of our container. We debated internally, with our exporters, with our logistics partner, about the pros and cons of moving now or waiting. We ended up choosing to move ahead with shipment today, only to learn that the paperwork was in fact, not in order.

Hence my writing of this post now. Upon commiserating about all of this with a colleague and struggling with all the practical and emotional complexity this situation poses, we come to the conclusion that this story needs to be shared in the hopes that in the sharing, more people might develop the appreciation for all the efforts and struggle that goes into producing the beautiful coffee that this container holds. Over the past weeks, our team has been continually stunned by the quality we're tasting from these microlots. It's led to an increasingly popular refrain around here that Burundi is becoming "the new Kenya".

Sincerely hope you all agree when the gems making up this shipment finally land in your roasteries.

-Melanie

The CCS approach to doing Ethiopia

It being the birthplace of coffee, combined with notoriously changing the perceptions of coffee drinkers about what coffee can taste like, Ethiopian coffees court especially high expectations and attention year after year. Perhaps more than any other origin, coffee roasters look to Ethiopia to provide both stand-alone knockouts, as well as that little something to round out an espresso blend. Time and time again, the “Queen of Coffee Origins” delivers, despite a frankly labyrinthine and constantly evolving coffee auction and export system. Year after year, coffee buyers eagerly make their way through Addis Ababa and into the countryside, in search of the next fabled cup.

Ethiopian coffee is still made up of many wild growing coffee plants – most of them have not yet been classified, so the genetic diversity is innumerable and is still very much being studied and explored. While varieties do change from region to region within Ethiopia, you will often see “landraces” or “heirloom” listed as the varieties, even though this does not denote a homogenous genetic pool covering all of Ethiopia.

Being wild, these varieties have evolved naturally and so are well adapted to their surroundings. All this means that chemical inputs (fertilizers), pesticides, herbicides and fungicides are rarely needed/in use in Ethiopia; the majority of coffee produced is organic in the truest sense of the word.

Our washed coffees are carefully selected, rigorously sorted (by both machine and hand) and curated together with Heleanna Georgalis of Moplaco Trading Co. Heleanna and her team purchase coffees from the Ethiopia Commodities Exchange (ECX) and once the coffees arrive at their facility in Addis, they are meticulously sorted so that the full potential of each lot is clearly distinguishable. The current iteration of the ECX is structured in such a way that transparency (i.e. knowing the specific people involved with harvesting, and the place the coffee was grown and processed) is not available. Licensed exporters like Heleanna purchase coffees based on three criteria: broad geographic areas (e.g. Yirgacheffe, Sidamo), quality grade as determined by the ECX (e.g. Q1, Q2), and the lot’s date of submission to the auction. Bidders are not allowed to see or taste the coffee prior to bidding. These realities are why the work of Heleanna’s processing and export team is so fundamental to the quality of the coffee our roasters receive; it’s why we consider Moplaco to be a “producer”.

Moplaco's natural coffees are produced at its commercial farm, which also works together with neighbouring smallholders. The region these coffees are grown is near Gedeb at about 1880 meters above sea level, with red soil. It is on the borders of Yirgacheffe and Guji, which are separated by about 10km of distance. The number of farmers that supply the cherries is around 200, but this number can change depending on the price. Farmers are paid twice: once when the cherries are initially delivered to the washing station and secondly through a percentage dedicated to community projects, such as schools. For example, a school in Yirgacheffe was built from this percentage in the past and is now being financed by current proceeds. Another school near the farm is also being supported in this way.

The natural coffee process starts just as washed coffees do: red, ripe cherries are collected and then sorted within four hours after they have been picked from the trees. These cherries are spread on raised African beds, where exposure to air helps dry the beans. The fact that the seeds do not touch the the ground and other foreign materials eliminates, as a first step, the risk of contamination, and subsequent defects that end up contributing to "earthy", and “soily” tastes.

In the second phase of processing, full red beans are carefully selected and any broken, green, immature beans are eliminated from the beds. This drying and selection process goes continuously from 12 to 15 days.

As the cherry dries onto the seed, a fermentation process takes place, which allows sugars to dry onto the seeds, leading to the development of a more complex, fuller bodied coffee, wherein more aromatic compounds can develop through the roasting process.

Coffee stays in parchment for as long as possible. Ideally between 4-6 months, so that the many acetic acids that develop inside the parchment during the drying, once settled down, will not taste like vinegar. If coffee is hulled after 4-6 months, it will have more pronounced tastes, both in sweetness and flavour. 4-6 months is an ideal period to have the coffee’s acids and sugars settle, in order to develop a more sweet and aromatic profile.

The fact that the coffee is from Yirgacheffe adds to its prestige, as the coffee is genetically supreme. What a careful sundried process does is maintain this supreme character and allow it to develop properly.

Important Terms & People within Ethiopian Coffee Production and Export

Garden coffee: coffee grown and harvested on smallholder property.

Semi-forest coffee: coffee that grows under a forest canopy. The land below the canopy belongs to a farmer who produces coffee in addition to other crops.

Forest coffee: coffee grown in forests protected by the Ethiopian government. People are given permission to harvest cherries. No people-induced cultivation is allowed.

Plantation coffee: coffee grown on privately owned commercial farms.

Smallholder: coffee farmers owning smaller plots of land.

Collector: a person that bought coffee cherries and in turn sold to suppliers (i.e. washing stations). In the current version of the ECX, there are no longer collectors.

Supplier: washing stations that are owned by a private person, or a cooperative. They deliver processed coffee to the ECX.

Exporter: can be a private person/company, a commercial farm, a union (usually supplied by cooperatives), or a government plantation. Commercial farms can only export their own production.
 

The ECX system: previous & new

The ECX auction system was established in 2008 and is a private company made up of private parties and the Ethiopian government. It was set up, ostensibly, to protect the rights of all parties involved, from sellers, to buyers, to intermediaries.

During its early iteration, smallholders sold their cherries to a collector, who bought cherries from throughout their area and in turn sold to suppliers/washing stations. Collectors had to obtain licenses in order to buy from their specific areas (e.g. Kochere), to which they had to strictly adhere.

Once processed by a washing station, coffee was delivered to the auction in Addis and were cupped and graded by the Coffee Liquoring Unity (CLU). Auctions occurred daily and exporters had the opportunity to see the samples, which together with the coffee’s region, is what they based their purchasing decisions on. In this early system, the name of the region (e.g. Yirgacheffe) as well as its specific locality (e.g. Kochere) and sub-locality (e.g Chelelektu) were transparent. Also available was the name of the supplier/washing station. Notably, exporters did not have the opportunity to cup these samples; only look at the sample and see its lot info. This is in contrast with other auction systems, such as Kenya’s (for example), where exporters routinely cup coffees they’re interested in.

Once the auction ended, the trucks containing the lots were sent to the exporter’s warehouse within the same day. This allowed for good quality control—trucks delivering coffee that did not match the sample could be sent back—and it allowed for price discovery via the knowledge about specific geographic origin and the exporter’s knowledge of demand for the various regions. One downside and perhaps a subsequent reason that the ECX was changed is that certain suppliers and exporters would enter into prior agreements so that the supplier could end up withdrawing from a sale if the highest bidder was not the same person it entered into a pre-arrangement with.

In the newer version of the auction, which was implemented quite soon after the first version of the ECX, collectors were eliminated and centralized marketplaces were implemented. So now, rather than suppliers buying from collectors or specific smallholders, they buy from centralized markets: cherry prices are based on the “market price”. One big effect of this change is that suppliers can no longer negotiate prices based on whose cherries they like better: they have to buy lots based on what’s available at the market.

Once the coffee (in parchment for washed; hulled for natural) arrives at the specific auction allocated for that particular region (e.g. Dilla auction for Yirgacheffe region), it is cupped and graded by the ECX lab within the facility, each truck that contains specific lots from specific washing stations is given a number so that its identifying information is only known by the Ministry of Agriculture, and exporters purchase based on the region and ECX grade. For washed Yirgacheffe coffees, there is an additional identifier: type A are coffees that have the “Yirgacheffe flavour” and type B are coffees that do not have the “Yirgacheffe flavour”. Washed and natural coffees have slightly different classifications.

Heleanna Georgalis of Moplaco 

About Moplaco 

Yanni Georgalis established Moplaco in 1972 and was a third generation coffee exporter. Yanni was highly respected not only within Ethiopia but was well known and beloved by buyers of Ethiopian coffee around the world. He rightfully maintained a reputation for not only selling the highest quality coffee, but also for his integrity in all aspects of the business. Heleanna, Yanni’s daughter, then comes from a long and established lineage of highly respected Ethiopian coffee exporters.

Heleanna is a courageous woman and has done an admirable job of continuing the legacy of her father’s at Moplaco while also carving out her own version of it in the years since her father’s passing. Under her leadership, Moplaco is constantly evolving to produce ever-increasing quality coffee in spite of the complexity and challenges continually present within Ethiopia’s coffee production and auction systems. Born in East Harar Heleanna, as a young girl, was forced to flea her home in the face of civil war and so grew up and was educated in and around Europe, where she eventually established a successful career in finance. She neither imagined nor planned to find herself back in Ethiopia and working in the footsteps of her father within the world of specialty coffee.

After the sudden passing of her father in 2008, Heleanna was faced with a difficult crossroads: continue the legacy her father had meticulously built with almost no knowledge about the coffee business, or continue on the path she had created for herself within the world of finance. We are very glad and lucky she chose coffee. True to her personality and way of approaching new challenges, Heleanna completely immersed herself in learning about roasting, cupping, agronomy (including the latest research and practices in natural processing) and the niche markets of specialty coffee all around the world. Though she admits that these challenges were extremely daunting at times—and sometimes continues to be—Heleanna continues to trailblaze her way through specialty coffee and is consistently updating herself on the latest trends and experiments in agricultural and processing techniques, travelling around the world to meet with and discuss these developments with the best and brightest producers and coffee researchers.

Moplaco Brands

With all the experience and knowledge he had amassed on the multitude of distinct cup profiles found in Ethiopian coffees—as influenced by species, geographic location, processing practices—Yanni developed a line of Moplaco green coffee brands that are based on some of the most distinct, well-known and loved cup profiles coming from Ethiopia. Given the ECX’s built-in lack of traceability, these brands are especially relevant today and we’re proud to present them now in 2015.

Matahara: Is a coffee from the West of Ethiopia. It has a flavour profile that is spicy, very sweet, full body and has a medium pointed acidity. Matahara means “new brain” in the language of Oromifa, and it was chosen to indicate the new idea Yanni had at the time he created it.

Abysinian Mocca: Many people identify Ethiopian coffee as coffee with the “mocca” flavour. This can mean different things to different people, but for Moplaco, the mocca profile has a dark chocolate flavour, is very clean with full body, and a good acidity.

Abysinia is the ancient name of Ethiopia. To Moplaco, this coffee represents the epitome of Ethiopian coffee.

Illily: This coffee comes from the Lower West lands of Ethiopia, under deep forests and wild nature. The coffee’s cultivation goes from the lower lands around 1600 meters above sea level, to the highlands at 1800 metres. “Illily” means flowery in the Oromifa language, which is well represented in the cup. This coffee also has a notable citric characteristic that is well balanced with its floral attributes.

-Melanie

The King is in Trouble

 

This post provides the backdrop for the previous post and my recent visit to Kenya where I was cupping and choosing the Collaborative Coffee Source’s lots from the recent harvest. My visit was affected by the current situation in the County of Nyeri, a district that is known for producing the best coffee in Kenya. This is where CCS always has bought stellar coffees from and for that reason happily paid the highest prices every season.  By this we have been rewarding good quality with the obvious means: good money. 

Coffee is an important product in many producing countries’ economy. It represents a source for revenue in foreign currencies and local taxes, thus its production is often heavily regulated and so is the trade of it. Ultimately, it employs many people: farmers and workers, all potential voters. Coffee is Political!

In recent years each County (also called ‘District’) in Kenya has received more explicit governing power, which is probably good for many things, but as we know, politicians can be unwise and plainly populist in their policy-making.

The newly elected Government of Nyeri have made a claim that farmers are not being paid well enough for their product compared to what exporters are making from selling it, thus new and radical policies are seeking to mend that situation namely, the local government in the county of Nyeri is taking full control of the milling and trade of all cooperative coffees* in Nyeri as of this season. In practical terms this means that the farmers’ cooperatives, which own the washing stations, are obliged to dry mill, screen and pack their coffee at the state run Sagana KPCU Mill. Ultimately the Nyeri coffee will be marketed and sold through the same Sagana company.

Is this being done in the name of what is best for the farmers? From history, from experience, from gut-feel: there is little reason to believe that the money will pile up at the farmer’s doorstep after this move.

Regrettably there is no doubt that coffee is generally not well paid for, which has been a sad truth not only in recent months but for decades. Unfortunately, exploitation and corruption in all sectors of the trade can and sometimes does happen. Even in the Specialty Coffee sector when prices are sometimes high, one can argue that not enough of the money paid for the end product is trickling all the way to where it belongs: to the farmer.

To an untrained eye, it may all look the same: coffee is coffee and trade is trade. Yet it should be acknowledged that many people are involved in the making of coffee and making sure coffee moves from the farm gate and beyond. Finding the best qualities requires a system and a lot of additional work (unlike in the commodity world). Developing a market where roasters willing to pay for quality actually have access to quality coffee is part of a system and hard work that ultimately benefits farmers via higher prices, recognition and repeated sales. Within the Specialty Coffee Paradigm, the product is totally traceable when it’s working at its best and the flow of the money is fully transparent.

The newly implemented regulations for trading coffee in Nyeri is now making the trade less transparent when looking for specialty lots from the cooperatives. The coffee business is not always just a commodity business: it is a people business, and within the Specialty Coffee trade, this is even more evident.

CCS only buys coffee from trusted sources and from people we know.

The Collaborative Coffee Source & Kenya Crop 2014

The Collaborative’s approach in Kenya is to add value to the chain by selecting the best lots we can find for our roaster customers. This means frequent visits, continuous searches in known and unknown areas, and extensive cupping and screening.

For many years we have chosen to work with Dormans as our partner in Kenya.

Dormans have set themselves up for accessing the best cooperatives by: defining the best regions and appellations, screening the best qualities from each place, and by even involving themselves in developing quality at the farm and washing station level (through a sister company).

Another key factor in our working relationship with Dormans is their recognizable ability to further process the coffee, which makes for the quality we have now come to expect. This includes dry milling (hulling), screening, cleaning and vacuum packaging.

We have always been offered close follow-ups with the processing and movement of our chosen lots, as well as insight into the distribution of costs throughout. This has enabled us to offer Kenyan coffee with full transparency, from the negotiated “farm gate” pricing to all the costs that add up to the final price.

Under the current circumstances CCS is choosing not to buy Nyeri Cooperative coffees from Sagana. To do so would not be in tune with our principles for transparent coffee trading and it would also be untactful to our longstanding relationships. As explained, in the previous post, this means we’ve had to look elsewhere for our selection of stellar Kenyan coffee this year, more specifically in the neighboring counties of Nyeri, but again with great assistance from Dormans—our partner at source—we believe we have found some great coffees.

- Robert W

* Estate coffee, as opposed to cooperative made coffee, is made at privately owned coffee estates and can still be sold through regular channels. But estate coffees have, for various reasons, always been of lower quality compared to the ones made by the best-managed cooperatives.

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Part II: The Transition Toward Quality

In Part I, a brief introduction to some major contributors to Burundi’s coffee subsector was made. I focused on three main groups currently involved in the processing and distributing of coffee once the cherries have been picked: the SOGESTAL (now, increasingly privately owned coffee washing stations (CWS)), local buyers (washing stations, amongst others) and dry mills.

This post will focus on how Burundi has begun moving from a coffee market selling low-quality commodities coffee into one that produces high quality specialty coffee. It is a significant shift in Burundi’s coffee paradigm and its success will require long-term planning, investment and the collective action and will of everyone involved. In this post, I wrote about USAID’s involvement in the process and how Burundi’s government has started to liberalize coffee through the privatization of CWSes and dry mills.

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The Transition

From my readings and the conversations I had with people throughout Burundi’s coffee sector, I learned that the already long and complex liberalization process would be even slower going without the involvement of USAID. As an example: when the first tender went out for washing stations, the government wanted cherry producers (via farmers' groups/associations/cooperatives) to acquire part ownership. In such a scenario, both buyers and sellers would have control of the processing capacity – a clear conflict of interest. One of the obvious questions outlined by potential buyers was: who are these people we’re supposed to be sharing ownership with? If partners with competing interests own the same washing station, whose interests win out? Is it the farmers (sellers who want to sell high) or private companies (potentially exporters wanting to buy low)? There was no precedent for this type of model; no other set of experiences to help make sense of how this was all supposed to work. In fact, farmers’ associations/cooperatives have not been able to organize themselves in order to buy the government suggested share of the washing stations (approx. 25%) and the government still own shares in washing stations that have been purchased privately.

With USAID’s involvement, companies that decided to go ahead and purchase CWSes had support and a bit of an intermediary to help smooth the transition from a government controlled industry to a semi-privatized one (the government still retains control of varying shares of each washing station). Cherry producers have been quite skeptical of companies buying up washing stations. A big part of the problem was mis-communication on the government’s part with respect to CWS ownership. Instead of communicating that producers were paying taxes to maintain CWSes, the government characterized them as payments that would eventually lead to coffee farmers groups’ ownership.

Also problematic is that governments, generally, aren’t very good at running things tightly and efficiently. The case of Burundi’s SOGESTALs is no exception. These have a history of running with huge overhead costs and producers have never been given the opportunity to participate in anything other than cherry production. They had no involvement or knowledge about markets and pricing; they constantly were or felt like they were being cheated (e.g. paid for less cherries than they delivered); they had no access to advances in agricultural knowledge and technology and no access to international buyers with whom they could negotiate. Amongst many, two consequences were low quality coffee and wildly fluctuating production levels.

What’s Been Done?

USAID’s five-year program (Burundi Agribusiness Program), which ended in November 2012, was significant in Burundi’s move toward high quality coffee production. The program, while small in scope in its targeting of a small number of washing stations and regions, seems to have provided the necessary initial push toward better agricultural practice, a marketing strategy (almost nonexistent prior) and better use of Burundi’s already impressive coffee infrastructure (the EU built the vast majority of currently operating washing stations back in the ‘80s). You can read more about specific initiatives in this post.

Private companies have also invested in better production practices. One of our partners in Burundi, Webcor, has an agronomist on staff who supervises an agronomic team to work with cherry producers on everything from fertilizer use to replacing old coffee plants with new ones (many of Burundi’s coffee bushes are between 20-60 years old; a definite hindrance to quality).

Just as important as improving the agricultural and marketing aspects of coffee production is the training of professional cuppers. If local partners don’t know what international buyers of specialty coffee are looking for, how can sales take place on equal footing? Again, USAID has invested in this area and one of its coffee specialists, Tharcisse Niyungeko, has been instrumental in both training and increasing the awareness of the importance of cupping for a coffee professional.

How Privatization has Benefitted Burundi Coffee

Actually, it’s too early to evaluate how the liberalization of Burundi’s coffee sector has benefitted those involved. It’s only been about four years since efforts began in earnest and I met with just a tiny fraction of the people earning their livelihoods from coffee. It’s pretty clear that it will take another five years or more before any widespread or significant consequences of this process will become evident. However, every single one of the 30 or so people I spoke with (ranging from government officials, to foreign NGO workers, to cherry producers) expressed that the liberalizing and privatizing of Burundi coffee is a positive thing. A very positive thing. From the producers’ perspective, the most significant consequence of allowing private players into the system has been competition. This new competition has led to several subsequent consequences: more transparency of the value chain, better and more connections amongst buyers and sellers (local and international), an actual choice in who to work with, since it’s no longer ‘the government’, amongst others.

Also commonly expressed was the conclusion that competition is good for quality. Producers are willing to be more selective in cherry selection and learn better agricultural practices if there’s incentive for them to do so. When the government controlled coffee production, cherry producers felt completely alienated from the selling of their own coffee – they characterized coffee growing as simply an exercise in producing something for the government to sell and benefit from. Since they had no idea how pricing was determined and coffee washing stations were 100% owned by the government, there was little choice or autonomy in how to work and with whom.

Thanks for reading,

Melanie

Go back to: Introduction Go back to: Part I

Note: The posts in this series contain both fact and opinions – from coffee professionals in Burundi and my own. Data collection for my master fieldwork has just been completed and has yet to be analyzed, so these posts will be updated as more information is revealed.

Interview with Olivier Wege (Webcor)

During my two months in Burundi for my master field work, I took the opportunity to meet with our producing partners. The following is a conversation I had with Olivier Wege, Director General at Webcor. Olivier oversees 13 washing stations and Webcor's dry mill facility and we have bought three lots from/through them - two come from Webcor's Nemba and Masha washing stations and one from Businde washing station, which Webcor purchased from Icocoge. Because the Collaborative is about facilitating long-term partnerships between our origin partners and roasters, I wanted to find out from Olivier what sets Webcor apart in Burundi's coffee industry; why Collaborative roasters should want to work with him and his team.

Thanks for reading,

Melanie

Olivier: [Webcor] was acquired by a Swiss company in 2008 and when they acquired this company, there was a team of three traders. Coffee traders in the trading business for more than 20 years and then right after, they entered Burundi because in 2009, there was this privatization, so Burundi was selling some of [its] coffee industries, like washing stations, dry mill factories. So Webcor arrived in Burundi in 2009 and we bought 13 washing stations and we started building our own dry mill factory in the area of Ngozi/Kayanza. We bought those three washing stations…13 washing stations and so in 2010, was the first harvest. So the first harvest but also the first time that we have private [ownership]. Directly involved at the stage of the cherries and things like that; owning a washing station – that was the first time.

Because all the private and foreign companies were waiting at the door, at the export level but this was the first time that there was a new player so far in the chain. And the first year was quite complicated because everybody had to understand the new system, how are we going to proceed and etc. So we had this whole system that used to be there with the state and then the new system… So in 2010 and 11 was a transition phase. It was quite hard for us, so we went through a lot of issues: political issues. A lot of communication problems between different partners and etc. and actually, we are still…we are now in and things are now quite calm. People now understand that the system has changed.

Now we have more private – a more private campaign, so we are really into a new area for this Burundi coffee industry. And so this is how Webcor has come into the coffee…the Burundi coffee industry but right from the beginning, we had…the way that the whole project was thought. So we have, we managed to have a good team because the idea was to really to go to this specialty coffee because we are first [in the] Ngozi/Kayanza [region] – it’s really the best area if you’re looking for the best coffee. And so our washing station[s] are from there and now when you have the right location, you have to have the right people and we managed to have the right people and have an agronomic department which is not really…it’s quite unusual in a commercial company to have an agronomic department because this is the state or…this is the state affairs but the commercial company…we chose this [model] to have control because there are many issues – the quality or the productivity of the coffee in Burundi.

So we want to make sure that the right things are met. So that’s why with our agronomic department, we can work with people like Tharcisse and Emile, with the project they are trying to put on. And that’s what we are doing: we are trying to work directly supporting the farmers. Making sure that at least the area where we are located, make sure that all the agronomic issues are followed. And then this is the only way to make sure that the productivity can grow and that we can keep on the same quality or even growing better.

And participate in some competition, like Cup of Excellence. Last year there was this Burundi Prestige Cup and then in 2012, it was the East African competition. So this is a way to show people that we are not here to just make some money, we came here to make sure that we have the quality and we make sure we keep on the quality. That’s why we are participating on these competitions and the first competition in which we participated in 2010, we had the first prize. Last year, we didn’t have a lot of coffees, so we didn’t have a very good position and this year, with the Cup of Excellence, we came back to a good position.

So this is our [mandate]: to focus on productivity and quality and make sure that we keep on this point.

Melanie: So if Webcor started working with coffee in 2008, why did they decide to enter into it from the specialty standpoint rather than just commodities?

O: We do both. Burundi…this is the strategy for Burundi. But we do both. So when they bought this trading company, they bought all the business, so the team was already buying a lot of coffee from Latin America, from Asia but few coffees from Africa. And the idea was really to strengthen the business from Africa. And on Arabica. Because this is where they felt the trend was – Arabica, fine coffee. And that’s why we came to East Africa. And then actually, we bought this entities in Burundi but we are also in Rwanda, we also in Uganda, Ethiopia but Burundi is kind of the first step. We put on, we are trying to put on business models that we are going to replicate in those countries.

M: And why did Webcor choose Burundi as the first?

O: Because the opportunity was there at the moment. Because in 2009, there was this privatization and then the [opportunity] came at that moment. So the idea was to find Arabica coffee in this trade, in East Africa and Burundi there was this privatization at this moment. So that’s why we started in Burundi but since it wasn’t so easy, because we had a strategy and the first year was to enter Burundi and then Uganda, etc. etc. And then finally, it happened that it was not so easy to enter a country and then especially when the system is changing and everything. So what we decided was to really focus on Burundi and make sure that everything is well understood and then we go step-by-step.

M: So is the agronomist that works here, is he the only agronomist? Or does he have a team?

O: He has a team. So he has three agronomic technicians. He is himself an engineer, he has three agronomic technicians. Why three? Because we have three regions. Washing stations separated in three regions. And then when necessary, we used to have…the first year, we had the…2010 and 2011, we had a team of 70 agronomic monitors. So people on the field are going around and making sure that… Finally, it wasn’t so useful, so we decided to refocus on these three technicians. And then making some partnerships with local entities.

M: Like cooperatives? Or…

O: Exactly. What we are looking for is making groups…it’s a kind of cooperative. But the name of cooperative in Burundi because in the past they had some issues, so when we say cooperative, there are sometimes…farmers, they don’t like this name. So we say groups of farmers, associations…

M: But they’re independent.

O: Independent. Exactly. So we wanted them to be independent because the thing is that people are always used to follow someone. So the problem we had is when we had those monitors, who are employees of Webcor, it was like those monitors were ruling the…then all the farmers, those groups of farmers were following this monitor like he was the one who was deciding…no, no, we wanted to be really independent and then we work together with trying to find a way to grow, to collaborate. So that’s why we…those monitors who are already people in the coffee from those areas. So we gave them independence and then so they are building those groups for some of them and then after, we’ll see a way to work together. So within the…even a visit to a washing station that’s called Butegana, because we have actually three washing stations that are the way of UTZ certification. So there’s one that’s really advanced: Butegana and now the group of farmers and everything. This is a great model to see where we are going to. So we already have this group of farmers are organized and we have this way of collaborating. We have some texts to give the partnership we are putting in place, so we are trying to build that but it’s not so easy.

But to come back to the first question you said: yes, we are focusing on…really this specialty coffee. Because this is really the added value for Burundi coffee because we are landlocked, the production is not so huge and then we have this possibility to have really good, good, good coffee. But at the same time, we are also doing coffee trading. Pure coffee trading. So we are going on volumes and everything. So that we also do it but we want to really focus on this specialty…

M: What motivates that?

O: First because it’s really, it depends really on people. Because traders we have the Webcor group. They are really for going in that way. So first you have to have the people you trust the way you choose and show us this way. That’s the first thing. Because they believe in that and then they want to go in that way. Doing volumes in Latin America and Asia, some other region in Africa but they know that for East African fine Arabica, there is this opportunity. They trust that but first… And then the second, I think, when you see how things are going. You see that there is a real opportunity. Because there are so many issues that you can overcome. So many issues because if you take Burundi in particular, you have had so many issues: political issues, the war and everything. So you know that if we work hard on things, the opportunities are there. We can really reach some… So first you have to trust that and really know that the opportunity is there and can work hard to try to find…

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M: Why do you think that you’ve been successful in Cup of Excellence? What is it about the way you do things that has gotten you to the point where you’re placing very well in Prestige Cup and Cup of Excellence? What are you doing differently than the other washing stations?

O: First, again, we have the right team…

M: Where does their expertise come from? Because if you’ve only been here since 2009, that’s three years. So how do they know how to produce specialty quality coffee.

O: Those guys have been there for a long time before us. We didn’t come here and then say, “Okay, we’re going to show you how things are going to be.” No, we [were] already buying coffee in Burundi a long time ago. The traders that Webcor bought the company and this company was already buying coffee from Burundi, so it’s a long time. So they have the experience of Burundi. They knew what was the potential. So when we came here, it was not so difficult to find the right people because they were already working with some of these guys. And the team was to constitute the right team and then to constitute the right…to buy the right washing stations. Because this…we have, for certain, the best washing stations in the country. We are really good located in Burundi. So where we are, if you take Kayanza: Kayanza the region where our washing stations are, this is the region that has always been winning competitions and everything. Coffee from that region is always winning because it’s the best coffee.

M: What makes that region so special?

O: Because of the high altitude along the 1800, 1900, up to 2000 altitude. You have the good soil. Volcanic soil in that region and then you have also a discipline amongst the workers and farmers. That region, people really have the discipline to work well in their fields and everything. So I think those elements…

M: Were those SOGESTALs managed better? Is that where that comes from? This work ethic and the knowledge of how to produce high quality coffee? Because before privatization, everything was government run.

O: Exactly. Let’s say before government, there was a problem of [organization and coordination] that was really missing. And I think maybe not enough was done to make sure the productivity was well supported and everything. But on the other side, nothing was done to make sure that there is a dynamic between what you are trying to build. The end buyer. Maybe not the end buyer but one of the buyers, one of the final buyers and then the producers. There was not this dynamic. Everything was given to the state and the state was selling it. So people were not used to have feedbacks on their coffee and everything. The thing is all the coffee was kind of mixed, so if you had a good coffee from that region and average coffee from the other region, it was quite the same because finally, everything was given to the state and then the state was selling and then we were already receiving the money when there was this money and that’s it. No feedback, no exchange.

As, actually, what we got was this difference. So there is this feedback coming in and I was telling you about this quality team we have, for example. They have been working in that. In the quality of the coffee for a long time. So they have this experience but this is the first time since two years, three years that they have feedback from the buyers. From the user of this coffee. That give them knowledge to…ah, this is the kind of quality they are looking for, this is the kind of coffee they are looking for. Before that, they didn’t have anything. So it was like something linear…okay, they do what they have to do and then that’s it.

But now, since there is this dynamic, they know how they can… So actually what we do is really from the starting point, when we start…even before starting receiving the cherries at the washing station, we try actually, in the agronomic department, we try to locate some exceptional field. So when we look at those field, we start to [work] with those farmers to really make sure that they understand not only how to make sure that the field is well kept and the cherries will be fine, etc. but the way they are going to bring the cherries. When are they going to cut the cherries? How much time…they don’t have to wait long before they bring the cherries. Or putting them in different baskets and then make sure they don’t mix something they started collecting six hours before and then blending it or something.

All those small kinds of things. With that, we make sure that from the beginning, from the starting point, we have this selection. This selection is already made. And then, it comes to the washing station and then since we know we want to go to the way of having those specialty coffee, those high quality coffees, we are ready to make those selections at the washing stations. Which was not the case before. Before, coffee was…everything was thrown into the same haul and then everything is processed because it’s costing money, costing time and everything. But we have this money and we have this time. We have this time and this money because we know that we have which partners which can go and help people who are working for this kind of quality.

Because we know how to sell those kinds of coffees, we take the time and the money to select those coffees. This was not the case before and this is not the case… If you take Businde, this is a washing station which is not really far from our area and we have been helping them a lot. Because we know their coffee. We know the coffee they have, we know it’s good coffee. The thing is that because they don’t have the time or money to make sure…they blend everything. There is a big part of the coffee that is wasted. Probably not a bad coffee but good coffee…there is less good coffee. We help them to make sure that the good coffee they identify, they keep it selected from the others and we help them… We help them buy saying we are going to buy this good quality in order to select. They don’t have the time to wait until…like now. September, October, November. For getting the money. Actually, that’s a big problem. They have to go fast and have the coffee processed really fast and make sure that the coffee is ready for export early in the year so normally it can come in and then they can pay everybody.

Most of the time we lose good coffee because of the reality of the situation. I know I’m talking a lot…

M: No but it’s important because our customers don’t get to have these conversations and they really want to know these details. It’s very important to them.

O:  You’ll have a lot of details when you in the field. You’ll feel more…and you’ll talk with one of our guys who’s called Luc who’s the chef de production. He’s supervising one region. We have these three [agronomists], I told you supervising these regions and supervising the washing station. He’s also coordinating certification. So you’ll have a chat with him and you can feel…and then he’s been in the coffee for more than 10 years and you can have also a chat with Felix and specially another one – the quality manager who’s coming: Lucien. And he can tell you about all this. He’s doing a lot. When he came into Webcor…well he’s a technician. Before he was only a technician. And now he can be a coffee lover. Passionate.

When we start having those cherries at the washing station, starting from March/April, he’s running all the washing stations and really at the beginning, selecting the good coffees. So sometimes he’s going all the fields just for a few kilos. So we really have to have the flexibility for a guy like him. A guy like him needs to have this flexibility to go and say, “OK, I’m going to use the car, spend money on fuel, go to the field, spend time…” He has this flexibility because we say, “OK, you go and you make sure that we have the right quality, the right fruit.”

M: The ultimate goal for us is to have those small microlots. If it’s possible to get it down to the farm level, that is our ultimate goal, so if it’s possible to eventually move towards that, then that’s very much what we want to do because we’re working with roasters that want to have relationships with specific farmers, so that they’re buying the same coffee from the same farmer year after year.

O: That we can do. We are starting because when we are building those groups of farmers, that’s really the objective. So we want to make sure that we can locate the coffee that was produced up to the field. We separate the coffees from the hills. We know this coffee is coming from hill number 1. This coffee from field number 2 and 3. So we separate from hills. What we want to do is really work from this group of farmers who themselves can say, “OK, we have this lot from this field. We have this lot from this field.” This is a job those guys will do. We cannot do everything but we have to… After that, that’s when we come back to this feedback, we say, “OK, if we can say this is the final buyer of your coffee,” and then he’s coming back because he loved your coffee, so he wants to know more about you. That’s absolutely fantastic for them because there is something coming back. Some recognition. They need also that. When they have that, somehow…

M: But it’s not only recognition… It’s about relationships [and buying from the same people year to year]. What we want ultimately is to negotiate our contracts with those farmers. Is that something that Webcor is willing to facilitate?

O: Absolutely. I think that when you start building those groups, give them all those facilities…the basic essentials…give them the tools…all this is to make sure that tomorrow they are independent and can manage themselves and can then have this direct relationship because after all, we have the washing station and dry mills and facilities. So we want to make sure that those groups of farmers, once they’re independent, once they understand that there is an opportunity of producing much more good quality, the facility is there… This is the way we’re going. We want independence for the farmers. We need more quality and more production. This is where we want to be. We are investing for that. More production and better quality. So everything that can make sure that they produce more and better quality is better. If they have this direct relationship, then they feel that they are producing for that person and that person has asked them to produce this type of coffee… this brings a dynamic that for us is fine. Because there’s no use to control everything and not making sure that things are getting better. But we want to make sure that since there is productivity, the quality is growing. That’s fine for us…

People in Burundi are really independent, they don’t like when you put them in one entity. People like to be free, independent.

M: I mean, it’s their livelihood, you can understand why.

O: But let’s make sure they really become independent in the right sense. Not independent in the sense of them failing and not knowing…not organized and knowing what to do. Really independent and know how to live off the soil…

Part I: Who's Involved?

Reforming of Burundi’s coffee subsector began in 1990 but was never fully implemented until USAID’s entrance into the process in 2007. After a yearlong consultation process, USAID launched the Burundi Agribusiness Program (BAP) in 2008. In addition to its work in the coffee subsector, BAP’s mandate also covered reforming of Burundi’s dairy and horticulture subsectors. Like coffee, these subsectors were also highly disorganized, inefficient and unprofitable, but due to coffee’s preeminence as the country’s largest export, as well as current state of infrastructure (i.e. the government had invested in coffee more), coffee has received the most support from BAP’s activities.

Many of BAP’s activities have been focused on increasing the quality of Burundian coffee, with the goal of turning Burundi’s coffee subsector into one that is appealing to specialty markets. During the course of my interviews I learned the recent focus on quality comes from a recognition that production levels cannot compete with more quantity-focused countries like Brazil and Vietnam. Burundian cherry producers own very small plots of land (i.e. less than one hectare with maybe 200 trees) and washing stations and dry mills are not typically equipped to handle large volumes of coffee. Everyone I spoke with, from cherry producer to SOGESTAL manager to washing station owner, believes a move toward high quality specialty coffee production is the right course for Burundian coffee. Coffee production is a time and resource intensive enterprise and coffee is a notoriously low-paying endeavor. Thus, those working in coffee in Burundi would like to see higher prices for coffee and believe the way to achieve this is by producing better quality coffee.

BAP’s team has consisted of consultants working in the specialty coffee industry in other countries (e.g. managers of coffee companies in the US), as well as local agronomic, cupping and marketing experts. Those who have experience working with BAP’s team have already experienced the benefits of their expertise. For example, winners from 2011’s Prestige Cup and this year’s inaugural Cup of Excellence, have consulted with BAP staff. The program ends at the end of November 2012, however, so the program’s long-term effects remain to be seen. Although people are disappointed that the program is ending, they remain driven and hopeful that the development of specialty coffee will continue.

The SOGESTAL

The majority of Burundi’s landscape includes coffee plantations and the government has divided coffee-growing regions in roughly the same way political provinces are separated. There are 17 SOGESTALs and each SOGESTAL is an autonomously run organization of the coffee washing stations (CWS) within each region. Before the government began selling its 160 washing stations, each answered to and were run by the SOGESTAL responsible for the region it was located in. SOGESTALs ran as a mix between business and government department. Although much of the SOGESTALs have since been sold to private people/companies, the government still retains shares, though they do not retain more than 14% within any of the SOGESTALs.

The SOGESTAL is responsible for running the washing stations within its region. Managers oversee harvest, processing and production, pay farmers for their coffee cherries and are responsible for finding buyers for coffee. Thus, SOGESTALs have always been in competition with one another, which is evident because some SOGESTALs have been and are better run than others.

Some of the people I interviewed believe that SOGESTALs will become obsolete because they simply cannot compete with the more efficiently run and profitable washing stations. SOGESTALs currently do not manage any of the privately run washing stations but still maintain the structure of a government department, including numerous staff and big overhead costs (e.g. offices and equipment, such as vehicles). However, SOGESTALs do maintain a function, especially when it comes to expertise in coffee agricultural practice and management of washing stations. Though many of the brightest and talented of these professionals are being hired away by private companies.

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Two Markets

There are two types of processing methods/markets in Burundi: “washed” and “fully washed”. Coffee is termed “washed” when it is processed by hand; coffee that is “fully washed” is processed at a CWS. Sometimes cherry producers prefer pulping by hand because local buyers of the coffee are in higher competition with one another (denoted by prices they offer) than washing stations.

Local buyers are purchasers of either cherries or hand-pulped coffee, thus a washing station is a local buyer. Some washing stations have been/are accused of cheating farmers either by recording false volumes of coffee delivered or by selling at low prices. Cherry producers are able to negotiate with buyers of hand-pulped coffee and so they will sometimes choose this route. However, the government discourages these activities, resulting in cherry producers often having to sell in both markets.

From a quality perspective, I can see why hand pulping should be discouraged: cherry producers are not using machines to pulp the coffee; they are scraping fruit off on pavement, literally using their hands.

Dry Mills

There are eight dry mills in Burundi (a new one has recently been constructed in Gitega) – some are state-owned; others are private. Of the mills, SIVCA is widely regarded as the mill most capable of processing quality coffee. This is due to SIVCA’s equipment, ability to separate lots and the training and experience of the people managing and working at the mill. It is owned by a group of over 300 people and is the first privately owned mill in Burundi. It was built as a response to coffee professionals feeling like they had no control/ownership over coffee production, marketing and selling, in having to deliver to state-run mills. SIVCA is the mill that was contracted to process the winning lots from this year’s Cup of Excellence.

Thanks for reading,

Melanie

Go back to: Introduction

Note: The above and following posts contain both fact and opinions – of coffee professionals in Burundi and my own. There are many different views on how and whether government and USAID activities have worked. I have just collected data and have yet to analyze, so these posts will be updated as more information is revealed through my analysis.

Introducing Burundi

Introduction The purpose of the following posts is to provide an overview of the Collaborative’s newest origin country. Burundi has become an exciting new destination for coffee in large part due to the major reformation the coffee sector has undergone throughout the past five years. Ever since Belgian colonizers introduced coffee to Burundi’s agricultural landscape, it has been the country’s primary export crop. But for the majority of coffee’s history within Burundi, it has been treated as simply a commodity: traditionally, production levels have been of principal concern and connected with this, Burundian coffee has neither been marketed, nor sold as a product of Burundi. It was often anonymously blended along with coffee from neighbouring countries and sold at “C” market prices.

Parallel to Burundi coffee’s anonymity, the country, as a whole has failed to attract much international attention. It is tiny and landlocked and although it has experienced much in the way of ethnic conflict, political instability and resulting and long-lasting economic and social repercussions due to these factors, Burundi, with its decades long history of tragedies and horrors, has been overshadowed in international media coverage by the conflicts and tragedies of neighbouring Rwanda – once a neighbouring region within the same kingdom.

Since the 1950s, Burundi has experienced five civil wars; two of these categorized as “genocides” due to the systematic planning and sheer number of killings of one group over the other: In 1972, the mass killing of Hutus by Tutsis and in 1993, the mass killing of Tutsis by Hutus. What hasn’t been adequately presented in the majority of descriptions of the history of these two groups is that much of the shared past was characterized by peace. In fact, in speaking with Burundians who have lived through conflict, I was continuously met with sincerely expressed comments that there are few differences between the two groups. More than a few people described being completely ignorant of ethnic divisions until meticulously planned segregation campaigns (e.g. within educational institutions) began.

The information that will be presented in the following series of posts is an accumulation of information collected over the course of seven weeks. In addition to working with my colleagues at the Collaborative, I am a student at the University of Oslo and decided to focus my thesis on Burundi’s coffee sector and how its very recent move toward privatization has impacted the livelihoods of Burundian coffee producers. While Burundi’s history is not a focus of these posts, it is important to situate the following within this historical context because it all relates to the current state of the coffee sector and the ways in which its stakeholders are working.

The Coffee The best Burundian coffees exhibit intense sweetness and elegance. They are balanced and have a honey-like mouthfeel. Burundi boasts great natural resources for high quality coffee production: high altitudes, suitable cultivars, good soils, good rainfall. However, execution of high quality coffee is in its beginning stages. The coffee sector has changed structures several times in the past 60 years and after a long period of inefficient, complicated and disorganized management by the government, liberalization and privatization of the coffee sector began in earnest in 2007.

To Come The following posts will be broken down into three themes: 1. Structure and organization of the coffee sector; 2. The movement toward “specialty coffee”; and 3. What stakeholders from various parts of the sector are saying.

Thanks for reading, Melanie

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Price Transparency

It hasn't been perfected, but below is an example of what we provide to roasters as part of their invoice when they buy coffee from us. When we originally discussed doing this, we thought it would be fairly simple to get this information. As it turns out, and perhaps as we should have expected, getting this information takes quite a bit of time because of the number of (necessary) parties involved. All of us (from origin country to here in Oslo) are not used to explicating each of these items but everyone involved believes this is the way to go and we're more than happy to go through the efforts necessary to provide these breakdowns to you, dear roasters.

The items in this example are fairly common but there are more or less items depending on the origin, as is to be expected. The numbers in this example are accurate for this particular coffee. In this case, our partners in Kenya are working on providing the "price to farmer" item.

What are your thoughts on this?

Melanie

Cost Breakdown

COFFEE ID	PRICE TO FARMER (USD)	PRICE TO EXPORTER (USD)	INCL. SHIPPING (EXW) TO NORWAY	LBS TO KG	USD TO EUR	CUSTOMS CLEARANCE	CCS SERVICE FEE	PRICE PER KILO (EUR)
Karagoto 17CK0243 AA	?	5.86	6.09	13.42	10.08	0.01	1.40	11.59

Who's Involved?

Transparency is a term that is thrown about a lot these days. When intentions are sincere, the communicator is trying to find a way to convey to the reader/audience the "behind-the-scenes" goings-on. The case of coffee is no different - the process of getting coffee cherry to the end coffee drinker is a long, complex and varied journey. It is our intention to be transparent and to us, this means breaking down what happens at origin, including providing information about which people are doing what. It's different in each region - we are dealing with a living product that goes through many people, after all. In some regions the cherry producer is the same person/people that do the wet processing (as is the case of some producers in Indonesia). In other regions, the cherry producer only produces cherry and all the processing and milling is done by other parties.

In the near future, look for variations of the above image for each region we partner with (except with real names, not just labels, of course!). Stay tuned for what transparency means from a price standpoint.