Sustainable Harvest: Just Good Coffee
photo by Jeff Kubina on Flickr
The basic definition of fair trade is: “a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency, and respect.” Sustainable Harvest, a coffee importer in Portland, Oregon, has developed this concept into an exceptional business model called Relationship Coffee. As founder David Griswold stresses, it has nothing to do with “cause related greenwash,” and everything with authentic relationships between the people involved in the coffee trade.
Sustainable Harvest carries mostly organic and FLO-certified specialty coffee from small farmers and co-operatives, and they make it a priority to understand the situation and the daily operations of each farm. The exchange of information goes both ways: Sustainable Harvest sends staff and roaster customers to visit the farmers and continuously educates them on topics like quality assurance and organic cultivation through podcasts, and they also invite representatives from the co-ops to share their experiences and ideas, and to see first hand what happens with the beans once they leave their facilities. To open up this amazing learning opportunity to more involved groups and perspectives, the coffee importer started organizing an annual conference titled Let’s Talk Coffee, where farmers and roasters can get together, find a common language, and hear what approaches to common problems are being practiced elsewhere. At that occasion, farmers can also taste fruits and spices that don’t grow in their area, so they know what roasters mean when they ask for “a bit more of a cherry flavor”. Including customers in their quest to make the coffee trade more transparent, Sustainable Harvest has published a few very good videos online that give insights into their business practices as well as the realities of the coffee growers.
This kind of transparency is one of the best business decisions Sustainable Harvest has ever made, says Jorge Cuevas, Director of Trade Operations. It gives the trading partners the confidence to talk openly about the issues they face and motivates them to build long-term relationships. I wish more companies in more industries had this attitude - and the matching business model.
By the way: Melanie Lansing, Managing Director at Sustainable Harvest, also supports fair trade as a board member for Ten Thousand Villages, Portland!
admin @ January 3, 2008