Transparency and “The Pledge”
As coffee makers, we communicate openly about what we do. We share knowledge in our courses and provide advice along the coffee chain. As coffee roasters, we also discuss the purchase prices of our coffees, challenging the status quo in the coffee trade.Green coffee is too cheap. Very few small producers can make a living selling their coffee through established channels and achieving the exchange-traded price. We've reported on this in several podcasts:
https://open.spotify.com/show/090WkPqHLfVjBPwZPrbrfn
As coffee roasters, we see it as our responsibility to pay coffee producers prices that make sense for both parties in the long term. Therefore, we don't base our prices on the market price, but rather seek direct contact with the producers themselves to negotiate the price on equal terms. If this isn't (yet) possible, we work with trusted traders. We also demand transparency from them, right up to the producer's level.
Even though we live in the information age, this is rarely possible. For too long, the coffee trade has been a well-covered, intimate business in which no one has to reveal their cards.
The Pledge – the voluntary commitment for coffee roasters and importers
However, those days are over – since 2018, an international group of coffee roasters (e.g., Tim Wendelboe , The Coffee Collective , Counter Culture Coffee , Quijote Kaffee , Flying Roasters , among others) has been working on a standard for transparency in the coffee chain. The result is " The Pledge " – a voluntary commitment for roasters and importers. Those who participate in "The Pledge" commit to making detailed information about the coffee they purchase publicly available. This includes, for example:
- Who are the trading partners?
- How long have you been working with them?
- How much coffee do we buy from them?
- What is the quality?
- What prices did we pay? (e.g. FOB )
We would like to quote the Flying Roasters from Berlin, who say about the pledge:
In this way, we set standards together, define what true transparency means and differentiate ourselves from pure marketing initiatives.
Transparency as an attitude
By disclosing our prices, we are clearly positioning ourselves in the roasting world. We hope that many more roasters will participate in this initiative. As Roger Wittwer from Kafischmitte put it in our podcast about the low coffee prices in autumn 2018 :
The more transparent we are, the more this will hopefully become the norm. Customers will see this and perhaps increasingly ask about the conditions under which this coffee was grown and purchased.
Roger Wittwer, Kafischmitte
It's important to us to be transparent about what we do. With our coffee farm in Nicaragua, Finca Santa Rita , we're right in the heart of coffee production and see, feel, and experience every day what it means to be a coffee producer.
With this background knowledge, we can no longer and do not want to buy coffee without knowing exactly what actually goes back to the farm.
It's obvious that this means additional work for the retailer. Pascal Herzog emphasized this repeatedly in his conversation with Philipp Schallberger . This extra effort has to be worthwhile for everyone – and that's why we're willing to pay more to truly get the information that satisfies us.
Transparency and open communication have always been a fundamental tenet of coffee makers. In our courses, for example, we disclose our café's operating figures so that participants learn how to calculate the cost of goods and personnel.
By participating in “The Pledge,” we are consciously advocating for even more proactive communication that goes beyond certificates.
As a roaster, we are committed to presenting the proportion of our transparently traded coffees in our overall product range.
Our green coffee list:
Further links on the topic:
What does FOB mean?
A text by Pascal Herzog. https://kaffeemacher.ch/preistransparenz-kaffee/
How can the collapse in coffee prices be explained?
Podcast https://podcast.kaffeemacher.ch/2018/12/29/kaffeehandel-und-preisfall/
What does FOB, Direct Trade, Farm Gate, and Cost of Production mean?
Podcast https://podcast.kaffeemacher.ch/2019/06/19/kaffeepreis-transparenz-podcast/
Notes on Finca Santa Rita:
* Santa Rita, Nicaragua: Finca Santa Rita is a farm jointly owned by Roberto Castellano and the coffee makers (each with a 50% stake). Kaffeemacher GmbH sources the coffee from Finca Santa Rita at the listed FOB price. We also finance all running costs on the farm.
