The bean-buyers in the UK changing lives in Colombia
The web has revolutionised the way that trade can be conducted across the world, giving UK consumers access to specialist products that would never have been imported without it. Kopi Coffee Club is an example of a British-based business linking consumers in the UK with far-flung producers of a gourmet product.
In the lush green valleys of Cauca, south-west Colombia, growing coffee can be an act of great courage. The region’s smallholder farmers are frequently caught in the crossfire of drugs trafficking, criminal gangs, FARC guerrilla operations, right-wing paramilitaries, multinational oil drilling and gold mining operations.
Despite all of this, the region produces some of the best coffee in the world. A complex calibration of variables including altitude, sunshine and rain levels, soil and agricultural practices create a perfect environment for growing exquisite tasting crops.
Unsurprisingly, then, Cauca is a regular destination for procurement manager Joanna Lawson, who travels the globe in search of the finest quality coffee beans. She’s tasked with sourcing new products for Kopi Coffee — a trailblazing online subscription club bringing remote, gourmet coffees to UK customers.
Every month, a new single estate coffee is delivered directly to subscribers’ homes. It takes just a few clicks on the kopi.co.uk website to sign up for the service. This simplicity belies the enormous effort that goes into growing, procuring and transporting the premium products.
Take Cauca, for example. “The area’s microclimates and high altitudes create delicate, delicious coffee,” says Joanna, “But the question is — how can it get safely across the world?”
In 2014 the UK coffee sector was worth a massive £7.2 billion to the economy
Certainly, there’s demand from consumers. Coffee connoisseurship in the UK is reaching new heights as we clamour for better and better products. In 2014, the sector was worth a massive £7.2 billion. This is expected to rise to £16.5 billion by 2020, according to food and drink experts Allegra Strategies.
Selling online means that Kopi Coffee is able to reach a relatively niche customer base — dispersed across the whole of the UK — who are interested in sampling a range of the highest quality coffees available.
In 2014, Kopi Coffee was acquired by the UK’s largest Fairtrade hot drinks company, Cafedirect. This made the issue of transportation much simpler. “Because we use the Cafedirect shipping infrastructure we can source coffee directly from microlots and ship it here alongside the larger order,” explains Joanna. “It frees us up to buy small amounts from independent farmers.”
Joanna reveals that when she’s searching for new coffee growers, it’s collaboration with cooperatives that makes all the difference — in terms of both quality and ensuring that products are purchased under fair conditions. “We work extremely closely with the people we buy from,” she says.
The collectives Joanna works with are all Fairtrade certified, which means farmers get a say in how — and to whom — their coffee is sold
In Cauca’s capital of Popayán, members of farming cooperatives work together to safeguard their livelihoods in the midst of political turbulence. The collectives Joanna works with are all Fairtrade certified, which means farmers get a say in how — and to whom — their coffee is sold. Members have access to agronomists, and to microloans for materials like tools and fertilisers, both of which help improve the quality of the beans.
This is all to the good, because coffee is a truly demanding crop. It needs to be fertilised regularly, protected from the hot glare of the sun and pruned at just the right time. The more careful the farmer is when it comes to picking and processing, the better. Only the juiciest red cherries should be picked, and drying is an art in itself which makes a massive difference to the final taste.
Most importantly, cooperatives help make more money for farmers. A community enterprise can secure a higher rate for higher quality coffee, and extra profit is redistributed among its members. This is a big deal in a region where cultivating coca, the leaf used to make cocaine, can be up to ten times more lucrative that farming coffee.
Joanna says that courage and community are helping protect coffee growers in remarkable ways. Members of a coffee cooperative in Popayán recently helped one motivated young farmer — who Joanna describes as producing “beautiful coffee” — build a house from scratch for his young family. It’s a small but telling example of cooperatives working together against the odds to create a strong, resilient industry.
The more we drink premium, Fairtrade products such as those sold by Kopi Coffee, the more smallholders in the world’s coffee-producing countries — from Colombia and Peru to Ethiopia and Rwanda — can fine-tune their crops.
Currently, it may be slightly beyond the average coffee drinker to describe a particular bean as “citrus bright”, “fruit-forward” or possessing a “lingering grass note”. However, as people like Joanna scour the globe for new gems, and the quality of the coffee we drink becomes exponentially better, we may soon need to wrap our heads around a whole new vocabulary.
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