PILLAR OF THE SPECIALTY COFFEE WORLD
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi
SUSTAINABILITY
When talking about sustainability, we mostly think about harmed biodiversity and fair payment to farmers. However, these are just some of the issues involved.
At Coffers, we believe that sustainability is one of the most important pillars of the specialty coffee world. As such, in our quest to source and deliver the highest-quality Brazilian greens, we only work with coffees that are produced according to the highest ecological, social, and economic standards. Consequently, we partner exclusively with producers who are willing to follow both planet- and human-friendly farming practices and, at the same time, sustainable harvest, and post-harvesting methods.
Despite some improvements in society today, the environmental problems on our planet are still getting worse every day. As such, we believe that it is time to rethink our actions towards the improvement of badly damaged ecosystems and human communities. At this point, we believe that being just sustainable is simply not enough. We must start thinking of regenerative actions that actually contribute to the reconstruction of our planet. Regarding this topic, we would like to emphasize our efforts towards:
fair payment for farmers
Economic sustaninability
The logic behind economic sustainability is quite simple: To be able to deliver high-quality coffees in the long run, we need to guarantee fair payment for farmers. It must cover the cost of sustainable production and provide a decent living wage. Sustainable production includes the maintenance of their coffee plantation and investment in equipment and knowledge, among others. Although this might sound super obvious, some of the companies in the coffee industry, especially the large ones, prefer maximizing their short-term profit.
Without an economic foundation, it is impossible to build a business model that suits the whole community. To be able to ensure its economic sustainability, we have established our direct trade program where we are the only middleman between the farmer and the roaster. As such, we are able to pay an extra margin above the C market price to our farmers. To achieve that, our prices are still competitive, we take care of many activities besides sourcing. To put it simply, optimization of the whole process, from the coffee tree to our client’s roasteries. So, farmers can focus on farming and roasters can focus on roasting and their market development.
global coffee community
Social sustainability
In a highly unstable coffee market, farmers are the most vulnerable of the coffee chain as volatile coffee prices have a strong impact on their life quality. Common goods like healthcare, food, and education become inaccessible very fast when coffee prices fall.
Consequently, the social sustainability of the industry is strongly linked to economic sustainability. Our direct trade program, which is based on the creation of a global coffee community, allows farmers to receive premium prices, which pushes the boundaries to improve the farming processes and, consequently, its quality.
Together with our partner roasters, we have already improved the lives of dozens of farmers and their families. But there is still much room for improvement.
With the commonly used word “farmer”, we may believe that coffee is produced solely by males. But the reality is, that approximately half of the actual work is done by women. However, according to Rainforest Alliance female coffee farmers globally have limited access to resources, consequently their productivity is lower. Research of the Food and Agriculture Organization showed that women farmers could improve their productivity by up to 30%, and that would result in an additional thirty billion cups of coffee yearly.
As such, at Coffers, we decided to focus our activities on financial support for different educational programs, ensuring that women have equal access to resources, education, and decision-making roles within the coffee sector. In order to contribute to gender equity in our coffee community even wider, we offer financial support for their football team. We strongly believe that this approach not only benefits the producers and equilibrated society but also contributes to the long-term viability and resilience of the coffee supply chain.
ecological balance
Enviromental
sustaninability
At this point, I would like to present you our Coffers Environmental Sustainability program, which had been created to contribute to the reconstruction of the ecological balance of the natural environment. As such, besides dedication to producing superior quality, our partnering farmers share with us as well the same environmental awareness. In order to contribute to the sustainability of their coffees we all follow the goal of the correct soil management with the correct usage of inputs.
The soil here in the Caparao mountains is extremely rich in organic matter. Consequently, coffee trees are well supplied with nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. However, occasionally, some inputs are necessary to guarantee yield and quality. For those specific cases, we join forces in search of adequate solutions to optimize quality, yield, and sustainability.
With an intention to follow the progress of our work since 2020, when we started our sustainability efforts, we have decided to analyze our green coffee beans at the laboratory of a leading provider of testing, inspection, and certification services, Cotecna Group, based in Geneva, Switzerland. According to the results of their analysis of the content of all the pesticides, our coffees grown on the slopes under Caparao Park are pesticide-free, so enjoying them does not present any danger or risk to the environment or consumers.
