Boutique Coffee | how Coffee is transferred from Origin to Coffee Shop | Coffee Trade shift

If you have been to any boutique coffee shop recently, you may not only hear about the source of the coffee, the boutique coffee shop is very important, it can let you know the origin of the coffee and trace the origin.

Isn't all trade direct? What exactly does indirect trade mean?

Direct trade and fair trade

As a term and a convention, direct trade coffee has gradually developed into an alternative to the concept of fair trade coffee. The rise of fair trade in the second half of the 20th century was a way for people to market goods such as coffee, tea and even handicrafts and sell them to places such as the United States and Europe to earn a reasonable cost of living. Fairtrade has become a formal certification for poverty reduction and sustainable development in areas that focus on producing these goods. For coffee in particular, Fairtrade has traditionally used the establishment of coffee cooperatives (cooperatives), in which many growers come together to sell products and make decisions for the community as a whole. When you buy a bag of Fairtrade certified coffee, you can reasonably assume that the person who produces the coffee will receive a reasonable reward for the coffee.

So why switch entirely to the direct trade model? Although fair trade coffee does achieve a more ethical system of buying and selling coffee, direct trading provides coffee merchants with some simple things that fair trade cannot do. First, when a coffee shop talks about coffee in direct trade, this usually means that the owner or seller of the store communicates and buys directly with coffee growers, thus cutting off middlemen and importers / exporters who are usually characteristic of fair trade coffee. There are many benefits of buying directly from coffee growers-which means that buyers can really ensure that the product is purchased at a reasonable price, and if a long-term relationship is established between coffee farms or cooperatives and coffee shops, owners can collaborate on the growth, baking and taste of the beans. Coffee roasters can provide growers with feedback on the quality of coffee beans, and they can change the conditions of the next batch of coffee to produce healthier beans and eventually better coffee. After establishing a relationship, coffee growers can also receive expanded or improved support from specific buyers.

An increasingly globalized world often brings the potential for exploitation and huge economic inequality-a trend that has so far been reversed by direct trade in coffee. When coffee growers and coffee roasters / suppliers can cooperate directly, this may mean that the quality of life of coffee growers is improved, while roasters' coffee quality is higher.