Of the many actors and transaction points in a traditional supply chain, smallholder farmers and farmworkers see the smallest returns on every pound of coffee sold and often rely on many intermediaries who take a cut between them and buyers. For smallholders, annual yields can ranges from a few hundred kilograms to a few thousand kilograms, meaning smallholder farmers feel the impact of price and climate volatility the hardest. Sometimes we buy from individual farm owners and may purchase their entire annual production, but the majority of our coffee is produced by groups of smallholder farmers called co-operatives or producers associations. Other times we’ll buy from washing stations that purchase fresh coffee from smallholders in the region, transform and export it, and provide services to the farming community. These systems allow very small farmers to gain access to the marketplace, and oftentimes, provide an alternative to the commodities market where they would make far less return for their crop.

The dominant commercial pricing model leads to the crises of generational farm abandonment, farmers needing to diversify income streams or move to more profitable crops, and lack of incentive or possibility for producers to invest in farm renovations or quality improvements. We purchase coffee in a private market through transparent intermediaries called importers. In this private market, value and pricing can be negotiated directly between farmers and buyers. Together, we work with farming communities, local mill owners and exporters to fix prices that are 2-3x higher than the alternative commercial floor price. We are continuously striving to pay the maximum for our coffee. We have ambitions to disrupt in-equal economic distribution in this market and will share more on such projects and pricing data soon.

> 100% of our coffees are shade grown > This year, 40% of our coffees were organic certified. You will find the certification on each coffee's single product page every single product page > If a coffee does not have an environmental certification, we buy from non-certified organic farms > We are part of the WCR Checkoff program. For every kg of coffee we sell, we donate a portion of proceeds towards World Coffee Research

> The purchase of new coffee tree seedlings > Farm-management training > The purchase of productivity inputs like fertilizer and mulch > Food security initiatives > Income diversification projects > Gender equity training > Investment in youth education > Access to healthcare