Coffee
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Issues
Coffee production is disappearing. Production yields have become dangerously low in Oaxaca and Chiapas, where we work. The vast majority of Mexico’s 500,000 coffee producers are smallholder farmers growing coffee on one hectare or less. Over the last ten years, coffee leaf rust disease and the lack of financial or agricultural means to tackle it has reduced production by 90% in some regions.
Coffee farming is becoming more and more unsustainable. This is fuelling widespread migration to urban centres in Mexico and the United States. And in short, coffee production is disappearing.
Chiapas is Mexico’s poorest state. It also has the largest indigenous population and is the country’s biggest producer of coffee. The average yield is higher than in Oaxaca, but the local market price is lower.
Coffee farming is becoming more and more unsustainable. This is fuelling widespread migration to urban centres in Mexico and the United States. And in short, coffee production is disappearing.
Chiapas is Mexico’s poorest state. It also has the largest indigenous population and is the country’s biggest producer of coffee. The average yield is higher than in Oaxaca, but the local market price is lower.
The average yield in Oaxaca is now just 100kg of parchment per hectare. In Colombia, the average yield is 2,400kg per hectare.
Conversely, on the global stage, Mexico is a growing economic force; ranked 64th globally in GDP per capita. The coffee-producing states in southern Mexico face a very different economic reality to the wealthier states and business districts. Oaxaca and Chiapas are the two poorest states in Mexico, with poverty rates of up to 80% and extreme poverty rates of as much as 40%.
Solutions
We work with several producer groups in Oaxaca. These partnerships help improve the overall profitability and viability of coffee production for producers in Oaxaca. Our long term focus is on improving yields and building stable demand at a stable price by connecting roasters with producers. We aim to achieve this in ways that are low-cost, easily replicated, and that ensure the first-order upsides are captured directly by those most marginalised.
Building trust, whilst setting baselines for coffee pricing and pre-financing
Currently, the most common outlet for producers is to sell their parchment to local intermediaries at a market-set price. We consistently pay upwards of this standard market price as a first payment.
Following this is a second, quality-based price that can increase profit earned by many multiples. This has been identitifed by producers as the most impactful role we can play in the short term. Paying in this way provides rapid, predictable returns on investments made by producers.
In Depth QC and Feedback
Our export partners Red Beetle provide in-depth and direct feedback loops to producers for every sample received. This provides both physical and sensorial analysis of samples, demonstrating where a coffee fits into their pricing scale, alongside direct recommendations for improving the quality, and therefore value of the coffee.
Red Beetle operate from their own QC lab in the Sierra Sur, close to many of the producers we work with. Further afield, QC is able to take place in remote communities.
Cafe El Zapoteco in the Sierra Juarez, Oaxaca, operate from their newly constructed cupping lab, equipped with micro hullers, and sample roasters. These projects were funded in part by Raw Material and Red Beetle; as well as through the long-term support of roasters who purchase from Cafe El Zapoteco.
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