In the April/May issue of the German trade magazine Crema, Benjamin and Philipp were given the opportunity to give an interview about the Kaffeemacher engagement in Nicaragua.
The title “just do it” isn't ours, but the Crema editorial team couldn't have chosen a better one. Finca Santa Rita is a project that constantly presents us with new challenges, but also brings us new joy every single day. And when we drink our own coffee, roasted from our own farm, it's the best coffee out there anyway.
Why is an engagement in Nicaragua challenging?
- the current political instability in the country makes it difficult to plan long-term
- every next step carries risks
- we can currently only make long-term investments to a limited extent
- loans that producers themselves have to take out in the country are currently burdened with interest rates of over 20% – if there is even any access to credit these days
- the institutions continue to function, the roads are no longer blocked (as they were in early summer 2018), everything seems to “work”
- but that shouldn't hide the fact that there is simmering unrest 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 frequent exchange
- having the same vision is crucial
Benjamin recently said that “from a business perspective and a sober risk assessment, we should never have done Santa Rita.” That's true – we are often asked why we do it?
For our understanding of how coffee production can work. For our personal development. And because we are increasingly understanding what it means to produce good coffee.
Especially in view of the absurdly low coffee prices these days, we are on the one hand glad to have completely decoupled Santa Rita from the stock market and to buy the coffee based on production costs. On the other hand, it makes us thoughtful that we still belong to too small a minority that thinks this way.
That is precisely why we are even more pleased about this article in Crema – many thanks to the Crema team for the opportunity to make our philosophy accessible to an interested audience.
