The trade pattern of raw coffee beans is changing, with both challenges and opportunities.

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When we are still arguing about which coffee shop has better coffee, when we are still despising each other for whose flower-drawing skills are better, while we are still boasting about baking technology, don't forget who created the coffee. Maybe you are still worrying about what to eat for lunch at the moment, but do you know that there are some people in the world who can't even eat a decent meal, and it is these people who use their industrious hands to create boutique coffee that brings infinite beauty to our lives. Yes, they have changed our lives, and what should we do about the difficulties faced by these people? At this moment, let us calm down, forget the flashy and noisy, think about the source of drinking water, and go back to the root.

This article is indeed a bit long, the editor does not ask every guest official to read the whole article, but ask you to read it hastily. Remember, with your little help, the whole world will be a better place.

Coffee is our beloved, and global coffee consumption has nearly doubled in the past 40 years, with an average of 2.25 billion cups of coffee consumed every day, of which about 400 million cups are consumed in the United States alone.

But do you know where coffee comes from, how it is made, and how it becomes a delicacy in our cups?

In order to change the current situation of mass consumers' lack of coffee knowledge, Vega Coffee was born by the cooperation between New York and Nicaragua in the United States. Vega has completely broken the traditional coffee business model, and all the coffee they sell is baked and packaged by growers. As a pioneer in the field of a new generation of boutique coffee, Vega is doing its best to change people's perceptions of coffee sales and to build bridges between ordinary consumers and coffee growers.

The question is very clear.

In 2005, Rob Terenzi, co-founder of Vega, went to Nicaragua alone to work for a small, non-profit union of female coffee growers.

According to Trenzi, female workers in Nicaragua are paid only 60 to 75 cents per pound of coffee, while roasted coffee can be sold for $15 or even $20 a pound after being imported into the United States. "sadly, Nicaraguans don't have access to their own high-quality coffee at all, and hotels and restaurants there still sell shoddy instant coffee," Trenzi said. This is rubbish in the eyes of us American consumers. "

After that, Trenzi worked for another local grower union for two years, and through his continuous efforts and the hard work of local workers, they created a new sales model, in which growers personally baked and picked coffee beans and sold them directly to some local hotels and restaurants. 'This is a business model that really adapts to local society and allows workers to be self-sufficient, 'Mr. Trenzi said.

After returning to the United States, Trenzi, his wife Noushin Ketabi, and his college friend Will DeLuca agreed that they saw market opportunities in the self-sufficient business model of Nicaraguan growers and were determined to change today's unfair coffee trade.

"We have been wondering whether we can bring coffee baked by growers directly to the US market. Of course, it is difficult to achieve this goal. " "if you compare the income of coffee growers over the past 5-7 years with the retail price of coffee in the end market, you can see that while the retail price of coffee has been rising, the income of growers has decreased year by year," Trenzi said. "

"so the question is, who has earned the difference between the prices?" Trenzi asked himself.

In fact, the real profits from the sale of coffee are not the growers themselves, but the middlemen and traders.

The weakest link

Coffee beans come from coffee fruits, which grow on coffee trees. After picking, coffee growers will expose the fresh fruit to the sun for several weeks until the moisture content in the fruit is reduced to about 11% (i.e. "sun method"), or remove the peel and pulp with water and then ferment the fruit, then rinse and dry it again until the moisture content is as low as 11% (i.e. "water washing"). After drying, growers shell the coffee and polish it in some areas. After shelling, the grower grades the coffee according to its size and quality. Usually, most growers who are independent or join growers' unions will sell these unroasted coffee beans to middlemen, who will pay growers according to the quantity, type and grade of coffee.

After the acquisition, the intermediary will sell raw coffee beans to other roasters, who will then buy them to supermarkets or cafes near your home. When buying coffee from a middleman, the roaster will first test the quality of the coffee sample, which is commonly known as the "cup test". After the quality is determined, the baker will bake and sell it.

In this complex supply chain, compared with other links, the grower link is the weakest.

Coffee, the second largest commodity in the world after oil, is the only source of income for millions of growers. Nearly 1 of Nicaragua's population grows or produces coffee for a living, the Guardian reported.

But while consumers buy macchiato, espresso or lattes at high prices, coffee growers get only a tiny fraction of the huge sales profits. To make matters worse, the price of coffee in the world market fell to 115.03 cents a pound in November last year, hitting a two-year low.

Throughout history, the price of coffee in the world market fluctuates greatly. When the market price goes down, coffee growers are the first to be affected. In October 2001, due to high global production, the market price of coffee fell to 45 cents per pound, a fluctuation that led directly to the appalling "coffee crisis".

Rachel Brooks Amos (Rachel Brooks-Ames), an expert on supply chain management and the living environment of agricultural producers at St. Gallen University in Switzerland, pointed out that most independent growers only grow coffee for a living, and once coffee production is reduced or prices go down, their lives will be on the verge of poverty. Meagre income, high costs, coupled with unsustainable economic sources, make the local social security systems such as education, health care and retirement in the country of origin crippled. If landslides, earthquakes, diseases and other disasters hit, the growers will lose everything.

"many growers know nothing about market trading and do not have enough economic reserves to survive the trough of market prices." "they don't even have enough infrastructure to store raw beans to wait for prices to pick up," Brooks Amos said. "

"middlemen are free to bid." She pointed out that most countries of coffee origin do not have corresponding laws or protective measures on the minimum purchase price of coffee. "the growers have no choice but to sell the raw beans to the middleman, who has the final say."

Global climate change has made the situation of growers even more difficult. Rising temperatures have led to the spread of coffee rust leaf disease, a fungus that can kill plants and has swept through much of Central America, leaving thousands of people out of work. Ocfam Inernational International published a study in 2014 that global climate change has exacerbated poverty in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and other countries. "the duration of seasonal food shortages in local society has been extended from the past four months to nine months now," the report said. "

Coffee free trading platform

Tens of thousands of visionaries from around the world have been fighting for years to solve the dilemma faced by coffee growers. Fairtrade certification systems were established to deal with the effects of extreme coffee prices in the 1980s. Coffee importers or large caterers agree to pay growers a minimum guaranteed amount of $1.40/lb or 120% of the market price, whichever is higher. On the supply side, growers are encouraged to join large grower coalitions to promote all-region sustainability strategies.

Vega went a step further. While paying the minimum guaranteed amount, the company also offers growers in Nicaragua the opportunity to profit directly from coffee roasting and product packaging.

In this mode of operation, De Luca handled technical and marketing issues, while Trenzi and Cotabi moved directly to Nicaragua and opened a baking center there in 2014. Vega buys premium grade coffee green beans from locals and provides financial help to growers to roast and pack coffee at the center. Consumers can order directly from Vega's website, and within days, freshly roasted coffee beans will be delivered to their homes.

"We have trained growers in the whole process of coffee production, from roasting, cup testing, grinding, packaging to quality acceptance, and growers can learn everything about coffee production from us," Cotabby said. " Today, the first batch of students who graduated from the center have become training lecturers here.

Vega works with mainly female workers on plantations that produce organic coffee and export less than 50-1000 pounds a year. Since its inception, the number of growers working with Vega has reached 1500, including 40-50 growers who have received training and have the skills of baking and packaging.

"our greatest achievement is to fill the missing link in the supply chain and establish a direct link between growers and consumers." Cotabby said.

We can see that the operation mode of Vega is actually an upgraded version of the direct trade model. Most importantly, Vega helps growers really understand the true value of coffee. "in the past, growers had no idea that the coffee they were growing was so popular that they had no way of understanding the true value of coffee as a commodity."

According to the company, growers earn four times as much income as traditional models in the past. In addition, growers are paid every week, which can greatly improve their living conditions compared with only a few times in the past year.

Trenzi points out that the growers and their families involved can get more financial support, their children can get a better education, and their families will be able to live in larger houses. They can even rent idle rooms to tourists. "our ultimate goal is to benefit the local community." He said.

The challenges faced by the direct trade model

Vega's success reflects the rapid development of today's direct trade model, with Stumptown and Intelligentsia purchasing, roasting and selling coffee beans directly from growers from multiple producing areas. Thrive Farmers buys raw beans directly from growers in Latin America and retains growers' ownership of coffee beans. In addition, Thrive Farmers will pay a portion of the sales to growers to help them cope with the impact of price fluctuations. Pachamama Coffee Company has established direct cooperation with 142000 independent small plantations in Nicaragua, Peru, Guatemala, Mexico and Ethiopia, which will return a portion of the sales profits directly to the growers.

The ultimate goal of these business models is to completely eliminate middlemen so that growers can directly benefit from coffee sales, but at the same time, this model still has some limitations.

The key to the success of companies such as Vega is the extremely high quality of coffee, and consumers are willing to pay high prices for their products, which means that direct trade benefits only growers who produce high-quality coffee.

NoraBurkey, founder and chief executive of Chain Collaborative, a non-profit group dedicated to improving the living conditions of coffee growers, says the impact of the direct trade model is limited and does not apply to all coffee growers.

First of all, producing high-quality coffee requires a high upfront investment, which is not affordable to all growers without the help of the growers' alliance. "there are a lot of growers who can't produce high-quality coffee, and these people can't get any support or help at all." "how on earth can we help these growers?" Burgess said. How can we help growers who are still fighting alone, have no access to outside information and have no way to join the producer alliance? "

Berger points out that many growers still have to rely on middlemen because most of them are remote or of low quality coffee. "if growers don't even have the money to transport coffee to the processing center, how can these people get rid of the torture of middlemen?"

DeLuca agrees, saying that even if a minimum guarantee is set, many growers will not benefit from it. But he believes that equipping growers with baking skills can help them become self-reliant and earn more income, thereby increasing investment and improving product quality.

Burgess also points out that raising income is not the only way to help coffee growers. Large multinational organizations, foreign zhengfu and aid agencies must take stronger measures to help growers cope with the challenges posed by factors such as global climate change.

A glimmer of hope

Just a few months ago, Vega brought their coffee to the wholesale agricultural market in Manhattan, New York, and launched a business coffee ordering service to help more office workers drink better quality coffee.

In addition, Vega has signed a cooperation agreement with the international non-profit organization Global Brigades, which regularly organizes college student volunteers to assist in infrastructure, health care, education and other activities in Latin America and Africa. The founders of Vega also plan to build more baking centers in countries of origin such as Guatemala and Panama and replicate their success in Nicaragua to help more coffee growers.

Although the company was founded not long ago, Cotabby believes that they are changing the lives of coffee growers, and the change is unstoppable. Rob (Trenzi) has been working with Nicaraguan growers for 10 years, and although some local families still cannot afford electricity or tap water, they have learned to surf the Internet and use smartphones. they are getting in touch with consumers in other parts of the world. " "in the past, it was really easy to deceive growers living in isolation, and they would accept any price we offered," she said. We need to completely change this situation and change the morbid traditional coffee trade pattern. "

Original address in English:

Http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/vega-coffee-nicaragua-farmers_us_567091c5e4b0688701db7170