Supermarkets have a huge influence through their purchasing decisions. In the example of "Lenca", a coffee from the Coop range, a supermarket is taking responsibility, making investments on site and paying fair prices. We were able to support the project and are delighted with the finished product.
In a recently published blog article and video, we discussed the opportunities and shortcomings of supermarkets regarding coffee. Special attention is paid to blends. The quantities sold in supermarkets are usually inexpensive green coffees. And because these are a commodity, an interchangeable raw material, the coffees are replaced depending on availability and price, so that consumers do not notice.
But there is another way: and that would be the commitment to a specific coffee, to a specific group of producers, for long-term investment in one place. We are happy to support such projects; they can have a lighthouse character. And Coop's Lenca project is exactly one of them.
Fact Finding Mission 2019
At the end of 2018, we got in touch with a Coop project group. Their goal was to launch a coffee project, analogous to the criteria of their successful chocolate project in Honduras: specialty coffee in the supermarket, fairly paid, sensorially significantly different from the mainstream, produced by a cooperative interested in long-term cooperation.
Chocolat Halba, Coop's chocolate arm, already had local employees with experience in intensive collaboration with small-scale producers. It was with them that I undertook a so-called fact-finding mission in Honduras in the summer of 2019.
We visited various cooperatives that had been carefully pre-selected for the project. As exciting as such a task is, it must be managed precisely. Because a selection always means an exclusion.
The selection criteria were therefore multifaceted. In one of my first origin projects with small-scale producers, I learned from my mentor that one must proceed with great caution, especially in a finding process, particularly during the initial clarifications – not making hasty promises, being open, yet somewhat reserved in concretization. With this maxim, we visited various cooperatives in Honduras over a week and sought a partner for the project.
The Coffee Producers: COSAGUAL, Gualcinse, Honduras
We found what we were looking for at COSAGUAL, a cooperative in Gualcinse, on the border with El Salvador. COSAGUAL was already Fairtrade and organic certified, had a very strong position in community building, and was very interested in tackling the joint project.
Gualcinse is located in a very dry area. The climate is strongly influenced by the Pacific. The clouds usually empty about 50 km further east. This opened up the possibility of producing dry-processed coffees. However, the infrastructure was not yet ready for it – COSAGUAL had just produced its first 600kg microlot of naturals, but for a large production, the appropriate setting was lacking.
On-site Investments
If you're serious about a project coffee, you have to invest on site. And for the long term. As drying capacity was particularly lacking, Coop committed to investing in a drying house. Tim Willems, our project manager at Kaffeemacher:innen Farm Santa Rita in Nicaragua, was on hand. Tim has already implemented several drying systems and was now able to co-supervise this project in Gualcinse.
What started as simple drying tables quickly transformed into a solid, well-ventilated drying house within months. In the first year, production increased from 1 to 8 tons, and 12 tons are planned for this season.
COSAGUAL with standard drying tunnels in summer 2019
The construction site in 2020
The completed drying house at the end of 2020
The cherries are dried on seven levels
On-site training for an 86.5-point coffee
An investment is useless if the know-how is not also trained. A local coffee trainer has trained the COSAGUAL team. Coop has financed an Ikawa sample roaster, so the quality teams in Honduras and Switzerland can taste the same roast profiles and jointly determine the quality early on.
Tim Willems also helped to define the post-harvest process. Upon arrival, the coffee cherries are now first washed and floated, then spread out on predefined drying beds. Initially, they are higher up in the drying house; as they dry, they move downwards, thus drying to the desired residual moisture content in more than 20 days.
The resulting coffee is very heavy, lusciously fruity with notes of cherries, a juicy acidity, and a deep chocolatey backbone.
The cherry quality required for such a specialty coffee must be high and uniform. Ripeness and uniformity are independent of altitude. This means that this project includes producers from different altitudes and does not exclude lower farms.
What is the fair price for such a coffee?
Coop asked us how the price for such green coffee should be set? It is not our job to determine the price, but to ask the producers what they need. So COSAGUAL defined the price and Coop paid. Simple as that. No haggling. Coop pre-financed the coffee, which was more than essential, especially during the Corona situation.
A new supply chain: COSAGUAL - algrano - Hochstrasser
The coffee from COSAGUAL was made export-ready at Beneficio Santa Rosa in Copán. With algrano, we found a partner for Coop who delivered the coffee to Switzerland. From Basel, it then went to Hochstrasser in Lucerne, where the coffee is roasted by the team around coffee trainer and roaster André Strittmatter.
Lenca - an isolated case?
As Kaffeemacher:innen, we are happy to support projects like these, which encompass a wide range of areas such as community building, training, fair prices, long-term commitment, direct investments, and purchase guarantees.
Supermarkets and large roasters have the leverage to create a big impact with a simple change of course.
We discussed our thoughts on supermarket coffee in detail here:
Lenca, the project coffee from Honduras, is for us a great example that highlights exactly the points mentioned above. However, Lenca is only one coffee in the Coop range that functions in this way. The sensory aspect of Lenca coffee is a cornerstone here, so the effort is significantly greater than for other coffees.
The other coffees in the range are sensorily less complex and do not (yet) come from projects where Coop takes such a strong sense of responsibility. We wish, and motivate all supermarkets, to embark on this path. More self-commitment, taking responsibility, setting up new supply chains, and striving for a direct relationship. This is the only way to create prospects for coffee producers. The constant switching to the cheapest green coffees on offer is a vicious circle that leads steeply downwards and helps no one. We see Lenca as a lighthouse example of how much can be done differently.
