Expanding Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee in the EU

Getting Serious About Supply

Expanding Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee in the EU Windward Commodities 30th June 2022

Farming as a Business in Rwanda: Falcon work with Rwanda Trading Company and Rwanda’s smallholder farmers supporting them in understanding inputs, outputs and the finances and Profit and Loss of their business. Understanding the cost of production and running coffee farming as a business is key to long term success, and a big topic in the market. Falcon shares this with clients for transparency across the supply chain, and tighter, trusting relationships. Falcon has implemented cloud-based systems to be able to share quality, pricing and cupping detail by farmer and batch easily with customers.

Tree Stumping Initiative in Ethiopia: A two year pilot project conducted by the NGO Technoserve in Sidamo, Ethiopia, demonstrated the positive impact of tree-stumping. Old trees result in lower yields and a decrease in quality. After two harvests, coffee farmers were able to achieve a living income with increased yields and improved quality coffee. All indications are that these stumped trees will produce between two and four times more cherries in the coming years. At the end of 2021 Falcon launched a drive to recruit their specialty clients to sponsor one farmer for $140 which can provide them with the tools to properly stump and rejuvenate their old trees, helping them increase their yields and quality, and in turn their household income.

Gender equality in Costa Rica: In 2020 Falcon partnered with Bean Voyage, a non-profit enterprise whose mission is to eradicate the gender pay gap in farming communities across all 8 coffee growing regions of Costa Rica. Bean Voyage has created women-only discussion groups to provide safe spaces through which farmers can create communities and build confidence through shared ideas and experiences. They also provide regular in-person and online training which aims to support and track the progress of their farmers’ education. Included in their curriculum is a large focus on environmental awareness and climate change, conservation, and the preservation of biodiversity. Falcon provides additional support by participating in the education programme, giving the farmers the opportunity to engage with and discuss how importers, as well as roasters, can collaborate with them. The initiative covers 120 farmers across all regions of Costa Rica and women have seen a 300% increase in income from farm related initiatives.

Time to Wake Up and ‘Cup’ the Coffee | 45