Since 2017, as Kaffeemacher:innen (coffee makers), we have been co-owners of the coffee farm Santa Rita in northern Nicaragua. Together with agronomist Roberto Castellano, we manage the small finca in Tablazon, Dipilto, about 30 km from Ocotal in the province of Nueva Segovia.
Why are we doing this as Kaffeemacher?
As Kaffeemacher, we impart coffee knowledge in our courses, from the plant to the cup. We are competent in all aspects, from green coffee purchasing and roasting to the finished beverage in gastronomy or at home. We have been working with these coffee processing areas for many years. We are well acquainted with agronomy and cultivation through travels, further training, and literature. In the future, we will also be able to report on cultivation first-hand.
At the same time, our goal since the founding of Kaffeemacher has been to create a connection across the entire coffee value chain, enable exchange, and also attempt to balance value creation. With our commitment, we aim to stabilize a small finca and contribute to its development.
How does the ownership model work?
We deliberately chose to become partners in an existing coffee farm rather than buying a farm and running it under our name. There are several reasons for this. As partners in an existing farm, we can help ensure that necessary investments can be made, thus enabling development. The exchange with our partner Roberto allows us to learn from each other and benefit from our respective experiences.
We are 50% co-owners of the farm, sharing equally in the expenses for investments and running costs. We share losses and profits.
We ensure that liquidity is available throughout the year when needed, to undertake necessary measures and investments. This prevents coffee from being pre-sold or important work on the farm from being neglected. Such neglect often leads to poor quality or crop failures. In fact, this chain of events is one of the major problems on coffee farms.
What are the goals for the finca?
We aim to produce outstanding coffee with the finca. At the same time, various needs and markets should be served. The potential of the finca is enormous. Even today, it produces a wide range of qualities, scoring between 80 and 88 points.
It is important to us to work as ecologically as possible and create a healthy cycle on the farm that contributes to healthy soils and ensures vibrant flora and fauna. It's a field for experimentation that Roberto and we are looking forward to. For Roberto, working on ecological projects is nothing new, by the way. We will report on this soon.
Part of the healthy cycle of the finca also includes creating secure jobs, adequate wages, good sanitary conditions, access to education, and insurance for the finca's employees and temporary workers from the community. This, too, is a field for experimentation and learning, where we want to proceed step by step.
Considering the points mentioned above, the farm should become a stable, self-financing finca. This is important to us! This is not about sponsoring. We want to try to design the farm so that it is entrepreneurially successful and can also serve as a model for other co-owned fincas.
How is the finca managed and how are tasks distributed?
The finca is strategically managed by Roberto Castellano and the Kaffeemacher (Benjamin and Philipp in lead for the Kaffeemacher).
At the operational level, the Kaffeemacher are represented in Nicaragua by Tim Willems, who is on-site as a Quality Manager and also acts as an extended arm of the Kaffeemacher on our behalf and with our full authority. Roberto and Tim, supported by a professional accountant who also has central training and inventory tasks on the farm, manage the employees. So far, one family has lived on Finca Santa Rita. A second family is now also moving to the finca. This family belongs to the new farm manager of the finca, who will start his work on-site in the next few days.
As Kaffeemacher, our task, in addition to input and remote exchange, is to contribute to the visibility and marketing of Finca Santa Rita, as well as the distribution of green coffee. Together with the on-site crew, we develop goals and plans for which varieties we want to produce and how we want to further develop the finca.
It is important to Roberto and us to also make the finca a destination for volunteers and interested individuals who want to learn about coffee.
What do visitors to the Kaffeemacher Academy courses gain from this?
As Kaffeemacher ourselves, we have – and honestly, already have – learned an incredible amount from and through Santa Rita. About six weeks ago, we sat on the farm and, together with Roberto and Tim, wrote a business plan for the finca. This plan considers not only all work steps per area and tree, but also inputs (fertilizers, disease control agents), expected yield, and potential production costs if everything goes as planned. From this, with a look at the coffee exchange in New York, it becomes clear whether the farm will be financially in the black or red in the coming year. We will incorporate all of this into our courses. You will learn very tangible, concrete things from the farm. If it rains too early in Nicaragua, we will know about it on a daily basis and be able to explain in our courses what this means for Finca Santa Rita, but also for other countries and regions.
The farm will – like our gastronomy projects so far – provide concrete content and examples that we can directly integrate into our training. However, the possibilities go far beyond that. Very soon, we want to be able to welcome visitors to Finca Santa Rita. They should be able to learn on-site what coffee cultivation means.
The opportunities for exchange are enormous. One concrete opportunity for exchange already exists.
In cooperation and close collaboration with Boca de Lobo and Claudia Lovo and co.
With our finca, we benefit directly from the close cooperation with El Arbol, Boca de Lobo, and the personal connection with Claudia Lovo and Tim Willems. Without them, we would not have embarked on this project and would not be able to co-manage a farm in Nicaragua today. They have done excellent groundwork and allow us to learn functional concepts from their farm. We are enormously grateful for the networking and supportive partnership and neighborhood with Boca de Lobo and El Arbol.
Boca de Lobo already has a functioning exchange and volunteer model, as well as a one-week farm and agronomy practical training program. In February, we as Kaffeemacher will conduct a course in cooperation with El Arbol.
You can apply for the course via the website. We will delve deeply into farm life, theoretically and practically, and be trained by Roberto, our partner at Finca Santa Rita.
