In the April/May issue of the German specialist magazine Crema, Benjamin and Philipp had the opportunity to give an interview about Kaffeemacher's commitment in Nicaragua.
The title "einfach machen" (simply do it) was not ours, but the Crema editorial team couldn't have chosen it better. Finca Santa Rita is a project that constantly presents us with new challenges, but brings us joy every single day. And when we drink our own roasted coffee from our own Finca, it's simply the best coffee out there.
Why is involvement in Nicaragua challenging?
- the current political instability in the country makes long-term planning difficult
- every next step is risky
- we can currently only make limited long-term investments
- loans that producers in the country themselves have to take out are currently burdened with interest rates higher than 20% – if access to credit is even available these days
- the institutions continue to function, the streets are no longer blocked (as in early summer 2018), everything "seems" to be working
- but that should not hide the fact that there is a simmering tension beneath the social surface
- we have a long-distance relationship with our local partners from Boca de Lobo (Claudia Lovo and Tim Willems), which only works through great trust and active exchange
- having the same vision is crucial
Benjamin recently said that "from a business perspective and sober risk assessment, we should never have started Santa Rita." That's true – we are often asked, why do we do it?
For our understanding of how coffee production can work. For our personal development. And because we increasingly understand what it means to produce good coffee.
Especially given the absurdly low coffee prices these days, we are glad, on the one hand, to have completely decoupled Santa Rita from the stock market and to buy coffee based on production costs. On the other hand, it makes us thoughtful that we are still part of too small a minority that thinks this way.
Precisely for this reason, we are even more pleased with this article in Crema – many thanks to the Crema team for the opportunity to make our philosophy accessible to the interested public.
