Plant to Port
Understanding the Value Stream of Coffee Production
At Raw Material, we are positioned between two very different sides of the coffee industry; production and roasting. Plant to Port is a course that will bring you to the areas that are often out of reach for you; the various stages of green coffee production, pre-export, and in the producing country itself. This seven day course will provide you with an insight into the world of green coffee production, and leave you with a broad and experiential understanding of coffee from in-depth agronomy, all the way to exportation.
This is the perfect course to level up your personal knowledge of coffee production pre export, or to build up the skillset of someone within your team.
Register your interest below to receive details on the April 2024 dates!
El Fénix: Agroforestry and Farm Management
At the farm, you will dive straight into the beginning of the coffee supply chain. You will spend three days living and learning at the farm, surrounding by the active running of a farm in mid-harvest. Gradually, we are transforming El Fenix into a fully developed organic forest, which encircles our wet mill and QC cupping lab; the perfect place to start your educational week. The course begins at the farm level, where you will learn all the aspects that go into the cultivation of specialty grade coffees. From inputs, to machinery, harvest management, and best farming practices.
And as a forest environment is where coffee naturally thrives, we will teach you the underpinnings of a coffee plant’s ecophysiology, and the importance of the environment on the biological functioning of it as an organism. Amidst all the learning, there will be plenty of time to taste coffees grown, roasted, and brewed at our farm. And to make sure you’re fully absorbed in life at El Fenix, we will explore the depth and breadth of the farmland itself, so bring some good walking boots!
Farm Business Management at Villamaría
Chinchiná is home to Jamaica, our first ever custom built drying station. It is the perfect place to dive deep into processing, as this is the station where we honed our meticulous approach to natural coffee processing. You may know of Jamaica from the association Villamaría. Jamaica was chosen due to its perfect climate and altitude for the drying of naturally processed coffee. Alongside this, the large space available meant that producing high-quality naturals at scale was a possibility not available before. As the project gained speed, roasters began to buy long-term from Villamaría, and neighbouring communities were able to see the merits of selling cherry to La Aurora, the delivery and buying point for Jamaica, instead of parchment to a nearby trilladora.
The sale of whole cherries to a processing station is a method uncommon in Colombia but seen in many other coffee-producing countries. The days spent at Jamaica will show you under the hood of our methodolody in Colombia. Our approach to processing, as well as buying in the country differs to the norm. We are excited to share the hows and whys of our work here. We will look at farm management from a business perspective, and understand how storage, monetary turnover, coffee yields, and metrics are balanced and correctly managed by a coffee producer.
An in-depth look at QC and the final steps pre export
We can’t wait to show you into our world, selecting and cupping coffees before they make it to the containers that head to sea. You will take part in the full quality control process at the purchase level, at the purchase point of Asocafe Tatama Santuario, Risaralda.
We will cover the key activities that follow parchment delivery, and show you the full spectrum of tasks that go into export and logistics within a producing country. By the end of the week, you will have experienced and learnt about each step that takes place before the coffee sets sails.
We hosted the first iteration of Plant to Port in October 2023, and will be hosting it again in the Spring of 2024. Spaces are limited, so register your interest and be the first to know about the upcoming dates.