Considering the fact that yum roasted coffee sells for like $10 an lb in grocery stores, even the fair trade price of $1.26 per lb of green coffee to farmer co-ops can seem a rather paltry compensation for the coffee farmers.
That said, there are a lotta reasons why — for ex — Ethiopian coffee isn’t roasted and packaged in Ethiopia. One of the most important reasons: Coffee starts to go stale beginning right after it gets roasted.
Meaning — Green coffee (as in unroasted coffee) can sit around for months and be ok, but not roasted coffee. This is why a lotta coffee roasters will boast about how their coffee’s served and / or shipped the day of roasting.
Still, for many coffee drinking peeps who really can’t tell the difference between coffee that was roasted today and coffee roasted a week ago — let alone the people who drink Folgers crap, which I’m not sure even counts as coffee — you gotta wonder: Why don’t nearby countries roast and market their own coffee?
It’s a question that some companies are starting to adress.
Look at Cafe Britt, for ex, which sells Costa Rican and Peruvian coffees, roasted in Costa Rica. Sez this company: “we believe that producing countries are more than raw material suppliers to intermediaries in other countries, we believe that these developing countries can export the finished product with all its value added in the country of origin.”
CoopePueblos Coffee Cooperative in Agua Buena, Costa Rica, roasts and packages its coffee beans locally and then mails them directly to coffee drinkers in the US via a monthly subscription. This program, coordinated by the Community Agroecology Network (CAN) brings over $3.25 per lb to the co-op.
Sez Agroblogger, a dude working with a co-op of organic coffee farmers who produce Gran Cafe in the Dominican Republic. “the reality is that processing in the country of origin IS possible and IS a reality, in the case of Gran, and many other organizations.”
But then why is it that I’ve never heard of these coffees, except via my own blog research? I mean, this stuff def. is NOT sold at Ralphs.
Perhaps this coffee doesn’t need to be sold at Ralphs and such to be profitable. Still, I’m curious to find out how these trading relationships work — and how these coffees taste…
Somewhat more pressingly: Agroblogger sent me some Gran Cafe stuff back in March. Yes, March — no exaggeration. I need someone to roast it for me, cuz I’m just not on top of it enough to find and convince a coffee lover with a roaster to do it for me. Any offer would be appreciated –
Update, 8/2/06: Here’s part 2, with other reasons why coffee often roasted where it’s grown —
July 30th, 2006 at 7:03 am
Siel- I’ll be happy to roast it for you. How much green coffee did they send you?
July 30th, 2006 at 8:15 am
Interesting topic-there are allot of coffee farmers , co-ops , estates, etc, roasting or having roasted their own beans in their local origin. Most of it is consumed locally , which makes sense. Marketing and shipping roasted coffee must present a myriad of its own difficulties. I just ordered a lb. of coffee from CAN you mention in your post. They make it easy for you–price-10.50–shipping -FREE!! How do they do that? Please allow 4- yes 4 weeks for delivery. I am looking forward to trying it.
You probably won’t find many small roaster’s product in Ralphs or some other large chain. It takes a large amount of capitol and infrastructure to buy some shelf space there.
July 30th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
Small roasters in general, domestic or import won’t grace the store shelves of major chains.
Most of the roasters I’ve seen at origin are 3-24 kilo machines. Hardly enough to get an export business together. Sadly, the other problem is the lack of quality coffee set aside for internal consumption. Go to a 4-star hotel in Lima, Peru and you’ll likely drink Cafe Britt. In Nicaragua you’ll get nestle.
I wouldn’t use Cafe Britt as a model of sustainability. A trip to their farm in Ajeual would depress anyone who is dedicated to sustainable coffee. They are the costa rican SBUX.
There are several co-ops in Peru who are marketing top grade coffees internally. CECANOR has use of a 2 bag (300 lb) roaster, a state of the art packaging line and they are working hard at gaining distribution channels in Northern Peru.
In Lima K.C. O’keefe and his partner Tatiana are opening a micro-roastery in Miraflores. He will feature small lots from his farming partners and will also have a coffehouse. A great deal of the revenue generated will get back to the farmers. (You might recognize K.C.’s name from the NY Times article featuring Geoff Watts’ farm direct program)
Another cool project is run by the Valverde brothers in Boston. They run Invalsa, importing coffees from fair trade co-op’s in Bolivia. Many of the co-op members are family, and the Valverdes sell green coffee directly to roasters, roast their own for retail, and sell green coffee in small quantities to home roasters . A good deal of the proceeds from the roasting make it back to Boliva.
As a roaster I will gladly pay $3.25 directly to the producer for fantastic coffee. Will my customers pay $12.00 a pound? Yes, retail customers will, but I cannot expect to wholesale this coffee to Ralph’s, Safeway. Walmart. Back to my mantra: Buy your coffee directly from the roaster, demand they pay sustainable prices, and support them when they do!!
July 30th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
In Peru the Fair Trade registered co-op COCLA is also making progress in roasting and distributing not one, but two lines of roasted coffee, one slightly higher market than the other. Its a challenge in more ways than one because Peruvians don’t drink much coffee per capita, and, I think, 70% of what they do drink is instant.
But as for EXPORTING roasted coffee from coffee-growing countries there are number of obstacles, especially if you’re trying to sell wholesale to restaurants and grocery stores (where the vast majority of coffee volume is):
For ex, if you want to sell to the specialty market you generally have to offer a wide selection, including coffee from different origins, and blends (and working w/coffee from one origin is real constraint when making blends.)
There is also the challenge of handling sales, customer service, and marketing from another country. It’s one thing when a Store X calls us in Boston and says they need such & such tomorrow, but if you’re in Bogata or Nairobi and get that call what are you going to do?
All this is not to say that there is no future in in-country roasting - far from it - rather just that there are constraints that will limit the opportunities for such exporters.
July 30th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
Wow GreenLaGirl! It looks like you have the attention of some serious mission based coffee roasters. Anytime we see a picture of a coffee roaster we get excited. My offer is still open to roast your beans if you so desire.
July 31st, 2006 at 1:40 pm
It seems like trackback isn’t activated on your site. But, for my contribution to the discussion, please see:
http://www.agroblogger.com/2006/07/31/beyond-fair-trade/
Thanks.
August 1st, 2006 at 9:52 am
I am guessing that there are also at least two shipping considerations. roasted coffee is physically more fragile than green coffee beans and could easily get all cracked up, which won’t matter in the taste, but consumers can be picky about wierd things.
also a roasted bean is almost twice as large as a green bean so it would require almost twice as much space.
I have no idea if either of these factors actually matter, but they could.
August 1st, 2006 at 1:09 pm
While roasted coffee is more voluminous, its also lighter, as roasting removes alot of moisture from the green beans. So for every 16 oz of roasted coffee you currently have to ship about 20 oz of green coffee (the darker the roast, the greater the dehydration).
But some of that weight-saving is offset ’cause now you have to ship the packaging, too.
A further complication is that about 20% of North America’s coffee is consumed as decaf, and there are, for now, few decaffeination plants in the world. So “origin roasters” who want to offer a complete line may need to find reasonably convenient decaf plants, so as to avoid shipping green beans to, say, Europe, or North America for decaffeination, and then back to origin for roasting, and then back to the North again for final sale.
For the record the coffee we destined for decaf we have shipped from origin to a C02 plant* in Germany, and from there to the States.
*there are no such plants in N. Amer.
August 1st, 2006 at 3:51 pm
Wow — Thanks everyone for the detailed info! I’ve learned a LOT via these comments, and will post a follow-up tomorrow –
August 7th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Siel, we have been selling our roasted coffees via http://www.donevelio.com and http://www.tarrazucafe.com for almost 6 years and we have shown to our fellow Costa Rican Tarrazu coffee farmers that selling gourmet coffee, freshly roasted here in the valley, and exported via UPS and DHL, is possible. Our operation is small and we cater to very selected markets in Canada and USA and, thanks to couriers such as UPS our delivery time is of aprox. 4 days after roasting. In case you are curious about our small operation, you are invited to visit the sites mentioned above. Have a good day
Jorge Umana
Proprietor
Fincas Tarrazu Cafe
Don Evelio Coffee Farm
San Marcos de Tarrazu
Costa Rica
info@donevelio.com
phone: 506 5465010 or 506 8905146
August 8th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
Cool, but it looks like the minimum order’s 70 lbs? I’m a single gal so that’s a lil too much for me :P Might be perfect if I had a lil officeful of people working on green LA girl though!
August 17th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
After almost 10 days, I’m picking up this thread again (ten days seems like an eternity in the blogosphere).
Siel, thanks for roasting and tasting the coffee. At the very least the roasting has sparked some interesting debate.
People like Jorge Umana are finding new and innovative ways to bring tropical products to consumers. Maybe you could address this issue in one of your posts: As a consumer, what are your aspirations vis a vis the producer, and what mechanisms exist to help you reach those aspirations?
After all, isn’t that kind of what Fair Trade certification all about? Is there a better way that doesn’t rely on a Third Party NGO as an arbiter of what’s “fair”?