Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/90134
ROASTERS REALM BY MARCUS YOUNG Collaborate and listen eing competitive is part of running a strong roasting business. Simply put, to survive, you've got to beat out the other guy (or lady). But while you should never stop trying to gain an edge over other roasters in your area, you'd be foolish to see your fellow suppliers as nothing but enemies. One of the fascinating aspects of this business is the fact that collaboration between roasters is becoming increasingly common. In fact, the companies that fully engage in the process often become more robust and, yes, com- petitive in the larger landscape. This phenomenon is actually not that surprising. Specialty coffee is made up primarily of small to mid-sized companies, and so it takes partnerships to truly expand the reach of the industry and drive more coffee drinkers to the products we produce and values we stand behind. It's also worth noting that collaboration occurs throughout coffee's supply chain. Coffeehouses feature guest coffees from competing roasters. Roasters band together to buy green and to support industry organizations including the SCAA, the Barista Guild of America and the Roasters Guild. Competing equipment manufacturers, allied products and roasters team up to support trainings. And industry nonprofits that aim to positively affect the lives of producers are successful largely because of their collabora- tions with other nonprofits and through their relationships with roasters and other businesses who partner to support their causes. As the specialty coffee world evolves, collaboration (with roasters often at its center) is keying growth, pushing quality improvements and creating some of the most important changes in the industry. ORIGIN-AL THINKING In producing countries, coffee buyers engage in varying levels of collaboration. Frequently green buyers join up for farm vis- its, cuppings and exploration. The Ethiopian Cupping Caravan 54 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com is an inspiring example of this: In 2010, about 15 green coffee buyers journeyed to Harar to visit numerous coffee producers. The caravan traveled with pieces of mobile roasting equipment and cupping supplies to cup coffee with producers, many of whom had never tasted the coffee they grow. Through the Cupping Caravan, roasters developed relationships with coffee farmers whose remoteness can make them extremely difficult to reach, ensuring access to unique coffees. Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers' Relationship Coffee model, which operates a fully transparent supply chain, has ushered in unique levels of collaboration. On many occasions, green buyers from different companies would gather with one coffee producer to negotiate price and quantity, and then determine how each com- pany would share the joint lot of coffee. These collaborations created leverage for the producers. AFAORCA's Cerro Del Fuego in Costa Rica is one example: Those producers were assured a market for their coffee while roasters had access to a reliable annual supply chain. Cup of Excellence is another example of collaboration at origin. Cuppers from throughout the coffee industry gather in a produc- ing country to evaluate the best coffees from that nation for a given year. Winning COE coffees are sold in an online auction. Historically, roasters have made purchasing alliances and bought lots as a group. After receiving, roasting and cupping samples, roasters occasionally contact one another to learn what these other professionals think of the coffee. If the opportunity exists to share a larger lot, roasters make a joint purchase. Similar think- ing and action happens in regards to the auctions held by the world's most prestigious farms. This year, coffees from estates like the Peterson family's Hacienda La Esmeralda are fetching prices between $29 and $66 per pound green (those numbers have been even higher in previous years). Reviewing the Stoneworks Specialty Coffee Auction results shows several lots that were shared by multiple roasting companies—without that collabora- tion, prices may have been prohibitively expensive.