Traceability and New Price Structure

Fully traceable. What does that actually mean?

You might have noticed that all our new coffees cost a bit more than before. This isn't because everything is getting more expensive at the moment, but actually due to a newly conceived shift in our green coffee purchasing. Of course, it's always about high quality and an exciting story in the cup. However, the more we roast, the more responsibility we bear. Kaffeekommune wants to take a decisive step towards long-term trade relations and fulfill our responsibility at origin. Our goal is to exclusively purchase fully traceable coffees this year. Coffees like the Berco AB or Magarrisa #4, alongside Las Cascadas and Sabana Redonda, are initial examples of this. What does it mean and what is it all about?

Climatic, financial, and political conditions are becoming more difficult year after year in many growing countries. This increases the desire for better pay, at least in the specialty coffee segment. For years, terms like "direct trade," "fair and equitable pay," "transparency," "sustainability in coffee," and many more have been discussed. None of these are defined, and everyone understands something different by them. For some, a first step consists of transparency in green coffee purchasing, meaning the disclosure of all figures regarding production and purchasing costs. In this context, "fully traceable" means that you can accurately track who paid what for what, from cultivation on the farm to the washing station, the producer, the transporter, the dealer, all the way to us in Mainz. An important (and indeed precisely defined) term here, for example, is the FOB price. FOB stands for Free on Board and refers to the costs incurred in the country of origin. From this, one can deduce, among other things, how the farmer and the producer are paid, and much more that is certainly of interest to you as a coffee drinker.

It is, of course, also important that not only you, but we ourselves, learn how the farm and producers are paid, and define relevant purchasing criteria based on this. Disclosing this information is not an easy process and involves working with new coffee importers. While the coffees have become a bit more expensive as a result, we also think they are super delicious.

Of course, disclosing these figures does not automatically mean fair pay, good conditions in the country of origin, or a sustainable coffee industry. However, in our view, transparency is a first step towards a better future and the basis for change.