Supermarkets have a huge influence with their purchasing decisions. In the example of "Lenca," a coffee from the Coop range, a supermarket is becoming aware of its responsibility, making local investments, and paying fair prices. We were privileged to accompany the project and are delighted with the finished product.
In a recently published blog post and video, we discussed the opportunities and shortcomings of supermarkets regarding coffee. A particular focus is on blends. The quantities sold in supermarkets generally involve inexpensive green coffees. And because these are a commodity , an interchangeable raw material, the coffees are replaced depending on availability and price, so consumers don't notice.
But there's another way: a commitment to a specific coffee, to a specific group of producers, to a long-term investment in a location. We're happy to support such projects; they can have a beacon character. And Coop's Lenca project is just such a project.
Fact-Finding Mission 2019
At the end of 2018, we came into contact with a project group from Coop. Their goal was to launch a coffee project based on the criteria of their successful chocolate project in Honduras : specialty coffee in the supermarket, properly priced, with a distinctly different sensory quality from the mass market, produced by a cooperative interested in a long-term collaboration.
Chocolat Halba , Coop's chocolate arm, already had local employees with experience in working closely with small producers. They were the ones with whom I undertook a fact-finding mission in Honduras in the summer of 2019.
We visited various cooperatives that had been carefully selected for the project. As exciting as such a task is, it requires precise management, because selection always also means exclusion.
The selection criteria were therefore complex. In one of my first initial projects with small producers, I learned from my mentor that you have to proceed with great caution, especially during the initial clarifications – not making hasty promises, being open, but still somewhat cautious when it comes to concrete details. With this in mind, we visited various cooperatives in Honduras over a week, looking for 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 strong community-building track record, and was very interested in tackling the joint project.
Gualcinse is located in a very arid region. The climate is strongly influenced by the Pacific Ocean. The clouds usually empty about 50 km further east. This opened up the possibility of producing dry-processed coffees. However, the infrastructure wasn't yet ready for it – COSAGUAL had just produced its first microlot of 600 kg of naturals, but lacked the appropriate setup for a large-scale production.
Local investments
Anyone serious about a coffee project needs to invest locally. And for the long term. Because drying capacity was particularly lacking, Coop committed to investing in a drying house. Tim Willems, our project manager for the Santa Rita coffee makers' farm in Nicaragua, was on hand. Tim has already implemented several drying systems and was now able to help oversee this project in Gualcinse.
Within months, simple drying tables were transformed into a solid, well-ventilated drying house. In the first year, production increased from 1 to 8 tons, with 12 tons planned for this season.
COSAGUAL with standard drying tunnels in summer 2019
The construction site in 2020
The finished drying house at the end of 2020
The cherries are dried on seven floors
On-site training for an 86.5-point coffee
An investment is useless without the necessary expertise. A local coffee trainer has trained the COSAGUAL team. Coop has financed an Ikawa sample roaster , allowing the quality teams in Honduras and Switzerland to taste the same roast profiles and determine the quality together early on.
Tim Willems also helped define the post-harvest process. Upon arrival, the coffee cherries are first washed and floated, then laid out on predefined drying beds. Initially, they are higher up in the drying house, then move down as they become more dry, drying to the desired residual moisture content over a period of more than 20 days.
The resulting coffee is very heavy, lusciously fruity with notes of cherries, a juicy acidity and a deep chocolate base.
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 at different altitudes and does not exclude lower-lying farms.
What is the correct price for such a coffee?
Coop asked us how the price should be set for such green coffee. It's not our job to set the price, but to ask the producers what they need. So, COSAGUAL set the price, and Coop paid. It was that simple. No haggling. Coop pre-financed the coffee, which was extremely important, especially given the coronavirus situation.
A new supply chain: COSAGUAL - algrano - Hochstrasser
COSAGUAL's coffee was prepared for export at the Beneficio Santa Rosa in Copán. We found a partner for Coop in algrano , who delivered the coffee to Switzerland. From Basel, it then went on to Hochstrasser in Lucerne, where the coffee is roasted by the team led by coffee trainer and roaster André Strittmatter.
Lenca - an isolated case?
As coffee makers, we are happy to support such projects, which include a wide range of aspects such as community building, training, fair pricing, long-term commitment, direct investment, and purchase guarantees.
Supermarkets and large roasters have the leverage to create a major impact with a simple change of course.
We have discussed in detail what we think about supermarket coffee here:
Lenca, the project coffee from Honduras, is a great example for us, demonstrating precisely the points mentioned above. However, Lenca is just one coffee in the Coop range that works this way. The sensory aspect of Lenca coffee is a cornerstone here, so the effort required is significantly greater than for other coffees.
The other coffees in the range are less sensorially complex and do not (yet) come from projects where Coop takes such a strong ownership stake. We hope and encourage all supermarkets to follow this path. More personal commitment, taking responsibility, establishing new supply chains, and striving for direct relationships. This is the only way to create prospects for coffee producers. Constantly switching to the cheapest green coffees available is a vicious circle that leads steeply downwards and helps no one. We see Lenca as a shining example of how many things can be done differently.
