We provide traceability and peace of mind. Since we own the farms and the entire supply chain, we can say with certainty that our coffee is grown with sustainable agricultural practices and the quality is always undisputed. We are one of the few coffee producers in the world who can claim that.
While many companies conceal their business practices (especially in the coffee industry!), we pride ourselves in our transparency. You’d be surprised at how shady the business tactics can be. Many companies sacrifice quality control, treat their workers poorly, and pay even worse. All for the sake of making a bigger buck.
We believe that our coffee can be a force for social and economic change not just in Bolivia, but the entire Coffee Industry. From Farm to Cup, We Are Doing Things Differently.
flagship farms
Our differences start right at the beginning. Our flagship farms are engineered from the ground up to be more efficient and put less strain on the farmers. We use drones for quality control which prevents employees from having to walk the entire land. Our drones use infrared technology which can pinpoint any possible diseases before there’s a breakout and also lets us know which bushes are ripe.
We also use a Drone Deploy Mapping technology. We do a 3D mapping of the entire terrain and typography to better plan expansion of our farms with new roads or collection centers.
We also avoid detrimental means of production that would otherwise harm the quality of our beans by employing sustainable practices that are great for the environment and the surrounding communities. Because we are located near the Amazon rainforest, we get enough rainfall each year to avoid detrimental and expensive watering technologies.
above the marketing gimmicks
The coffee industry has created so many certifications. “Direct Trade”, “Fair Trade”, USDA Organic Certification”. If we’re honest, many of these certifications are a joke. If you want to know more about Fair Trade vs. Direct trade and why neither are actually paying the farmers what they deserve, read our recent article.
Why Fair Trade isn't Fair and Direct Trade isn't Much Better Read Article
The USDA Organic certification is ridiculously expensive and corrupt. It costs thousands of dollars every year for farmers to get that certification. The fact that most coffee is coming from third world countries, means a majority of farmers cannot afford to pay this fee to get certified. Even if they are following all of the correct practices, they are unable to sell their coffee to some of the larger companies that require these certifications. It’s extortion of the farmers, and it really bugs us. Instead, we spend those thousands on supporting and strengthening the communities.
These marketing gimmicks have become a big barrier of entry for these farmers. It’s very unfortunate because these farmers have the land and quality to sell incredible coffee, but they can’t get started without acquiring these certifications.
Quite frankly, the coffee industry pisses us off sometimes.
We call it, “the industry of poverty” that feeds on the less fortunate to maintain the cycle. There are middle men making a lot of money off of the farmers and expensive bureaucratic practices. That’s why we circumvent the middle men to sell directly to you. We want to show the communities and coffee industry and coffee consumers *like yourself* that it can be done differently. From farm to cup, buy directly from the farmer.
strengthening the communities
Many farmers in Bolivia are subsistence farmers. This means they only grow enough to support their families, and many get stuck in this cycle. We have paid great sums of money to bring in the best agronomists of the world to not only aid us in coffee production but also to reeducate the farmers in our communities on how to use their land to grow specialty coffee which can be sold at a premium price. This brings an influx of money into not just their families, but into the communities as well. It creates a snowball effect as they are now able to send their kids to college in the cities to receive a better education, and to continue growing the community and its economy.
Each of our farms are located in a different community, and we push them to excel. We put a lot of money back into the communities to clean up roads, build soccer fields, donate fuel, distribute medicines, and put money into the schools and to help build new ones. Educating our workers is one of our biggest motivators.
how we treat our employees
Our workers and neighbors are our people, our community, and our family. We pride ourselves in giving them more than just a liveable wage because we believe that the better off our people are, the better off we are. Their success is our success.
We are a morally sustainable business not just a for profit business. We emphasize equal pay, we have maternity leave. The countryside is very sexist. We have incredibly smart women running our farms. We are ingraining that culture. We push for that progressive mentality.
