Making the case for a Course or Guide in:

“Etiquette in Green Coffee Purchasing”

Like in any relationship without good or effective communication , the relationship will deteriorate to the point where either one party feels taken advantage of or they simply walk away feeling violated or being taken advantage of because they simply feel shafted. But sometimes both parties still engage but in a very ineffective emotionless transactional manner simply because these are the rules we play by that we know of and so we simply just tolerate each other.

However , I feel there comes a time when you simply cannot take the mundane and must point out what needs mending and what serves you best — so from the perspective of a producer I feel the time is overdue for some truths on “Etiquette in green coffee buying”. The SCA has a course under the Coffee Skills Program in Green Coffee and I honestly feel there is an opportunity a gap really to educate the importers and roasters out there on questions some grapple with daily especially on ethics and fairness in transactions and especially as they start relationships with various producers.

Just like any business training , it is paramount that there are guidelines right from the request for samples — who bears the cost for this where the cost of sending just a 1kg of a sample to the US & Europe costs anywhere between $50 — $56 (factoring phytosanitary costs) via DHL. Whatever both parties agree — honour the turnaround time as well in feedback due to various policies and laws and other obligations that exporters have to the cooperatives, authorities , banks and investors. If there is open, honest communication all can be honoured in an efficient manner. When you have an importer or roaster telling you they lost the cupping notes after you have waited a month …Fair ? Ethical? Or blatant disregard of the process?

When we started exporting coffee about 5 years ago interest rates in Kenyan banks were between 23 -26% when I have shared this with some they gasp …yes steep but we have worked to sustain ourselves for 11 years despite the imperfections of the system and industry policies that mostly favour the bigger multinationals that have economies of scale the bear the storms and rough rides. Today we are at about 13% lending rates still quite high but what are the options when you may be a Kenyan with no other options for financing and your bank could be the only option? This is when of course international lenders come in handy from the atypical funds, VC’s , international investors not forgetting forging some partnerships with importers and roasters who understand your struggle and view your relationship as long term.

Yes we all need financing from we the producer-exporters, the bigger multinationals , you the roaster or importer who may be reading this but let us not screw each other up when we do not take time to communicate effectively in what works for each side. For producers — we always need cash quickly, during the harvest, after all the time really cash is king just like in any business . Same case for entrepreneurs, exporters ….but most importantly the source that bears all the risk …why should producers always inherently bear all the risk or most of the cost if I could put it that way? Why is it so hard to try mend what has been custom — that is obviously not working for many the most important group here to a new way of doing business? In Kenya where for example by law producers need to get paid within 7 days so go figure ..the borrowing and lending happening between exporter and lender to keep the coffee , avoid fines, keep their licences etc. and if you are a small business just how many loop holes to jump to get that kind of financing. I am talking worth 4 containers per season minimum at the very least and this is a tiny tiny SME like us.

Similar to what we have as guidelines on what “Specialty Coffee is” — zero primary defects and allowed only 5 secondary defects in a 300–350g of coffee is simply the same ask for guidelines on the process of green coffee purchases especially when initiating relationships …

For example:

• Discuss how samples will be paid for — if a new relationship producer/exporter bearing the cost or is the buyer willing to pay for these..
• Feedback turn around time for samples — this is serious business please cup the samples make a decision asap give feedback and proper cupping notes feedback whichever way you do it be it on SCA forms or cropster etc feedback is crucial just give us feedback we can share with producer groups we work with.
• Don’t act like you are doing us a favour this is business, you reached out we responded please don’t act like you are doing us a favour by cupping our coffee this is supposed to be mutually beneficial you make money we make money no shafting involved.
• Learn the processes in each country you source from right from farm to shipping ..the documentation etc. educate yourself and learn who your producer is ..however this does not make you a verifying body it does not mean you need to fly in to watch how we harvest, dry , ferment coffee and take nice pictures yet ..no …first we want to build trust with a transaction then we invite you or you ask and we oblige once we on both ends trust each other. Often these origin trips are done with a lack of understanding of what you will be looking for and because you are not native to the land ..what or how can you verify what we do or how in one week? You would need a year and two seasons just to get a feel ..we had an importer tell us how after sending 3 batches of samples he still needed to fly out here to verify how we operate ..really? That was the reason you could not select a coffee after misplacing your cupping notes? C’mon, mutual respect of each others time……Communicate please …life happens , machines breakdown, pandemics impact business …simply communicate and it will be okay to pick up where we leave off.

Those are just but a few pointers and yes I know we all need financing so not a shame to mention this and see how to still work together.

However when I have seen some Kenyan run export businesses struggle , folks lose licenses to trade, folks lose homes , income and livelihoods all because we all got into this industry that favours the consuming/buyer side …I am pushed to say something needs to be done …some honest conversations on how to educate some importers/roasters on how to have better relationships with producers and exporters at origin — folks who ensure you have your coffee also also have to feed, educate and provide stability for their families and employees …it cannot be so skewed to one side that we just twiddle our thumbs as we wait for things to get better.

#coffeeeducation #producers #origin #etiquette #coffee