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It started in 2016,
with a Kickstarter campaign to fund the construction of a community wet mill in Quindío, Colombia.
El Fénix serves to act as an example that can be replicated, to benefit producers that work locally to each central point. A community wet mill improves quality alongside bringing more stable returns for the coffee produced. A wet mill benefits a larger number of people than working with a sole farm.
1. An organic rare-variety coffee forest + post-harvest lab.
A space for experimenting and gathering data first-hand on new practical farming. Techniques, adaption to organic production, and selective breeding programs. To host farm management and cupping courses for producers and roasters, which now happens through our green coffee course, Plant to Port.
Through purchasing cherries rather than parchment we can ensure quality by controlling processing variables, maximising the potential value of the coffee.
A two-payment system helps to stabilise incomes and improve cashflow timing; the first upfront upon delivering cherry (3-6 weeks earlier than first parchment payments), and a second upon export.
Following a first payment, the second payment fund is made upon export, and dependent on the price roasters are willing to pay; if roasters are willing to pay more, that difference/kg flows straight through to the producers in the neighbourhood as maximised profits.
3. Ecotourism + farm focused farm-stay
From the outset, we knew the hosting of our visiting roasters and farmers should be managed by experts in this field; not ourselves. The resulting “El Fénix farm-stay” business is owned and funded separately to Raw Material.
The home of Plant to Port
El Fénix is the home base for our intensive 7 day green coffee course.
At Raw Material, we are positioned between two very different sides of the coffee industry; production and roasting.
Plant to Port brings you to the areas that are often out of reach; the various stages of green coffee production, pre-export, and in the producing country itself.
The course provides attendees with an insight into the world of green coffee production, and leaves them with a broad and experiential understanding of coffee from in-depth agronomy, all the way to exportation.
Whether you’re wanting to level up your own understanding of the supply chain within a producing country, or to increase the knowledge of your team, this is the course for you.
The course is hosted in both English and Spanish.