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Virtual Buyers’ Caravan which leveraged captured video con-
tent, carefully choreographed interactive online meetups, and
coordinated cuppings of thousands of samples by dozens of
roasters all over the world to replicate the origin trip experience
and sell a significant number of single-farm lots of green coffee.
Transparency It’s another big topic for another day,
but suffice it to say, anecdotal interactions can sometimes act
as proxies for more rigorous analysis. In business, including
the coffee business, perhaps a sharing a few meals and lively
conversations with someone is enough to form an opinion that
allows one to trust their gut about someone’s intentions and
morals. A half day on a coffee farm looking at how happy
workers seem might be enough to purchase their coffee with
Photo / Visuals a clear conscience. If we were going to talk about this, I’d argue
that these kinds of interactions are vastly insufficient and
easily manipulated. Regardless, in the absence of such anec-
dotal in-person experiences, the spotlight has been turned to
secondary sources of verification and transparency information
regarding coffee supply chains. In my opinion, this is a very
positive development. Some of these systems prevent the
manipulation of information using blockchain-enabled plat-
The spotlight has been forms, others leverage different infrastructure. Some is verified
by third parties and different stakeholders, some not. The
turned to secondary quality and legitimacy can vary, like with anything else. In
general, more specific information is becoming more widely
sources of verification available. Making price transparency, producer verification,
and other information transparent along a supply chain can
and transparency. give roasters and consumers peace of mind much more effi-
ciently than flying across the world to check out how happy
they seem.
Trading While traditional commodity trading is highly
anonymous and impersonal by nature, personalized sourcing,
most common in high-end specialty coffee, tends to involve
much more people-moving such as origin trips or producers
traveling to trade shows or popping into foreign roasters. In the
absence of those opportunities, several workarounds have
emerged. Beyco, a platform created by the Progreso Foundation
in the Netherlands has created a financing structure that allows
farmer groups increased access to capital at competitive rates,
breaking down one of the most significant barriers to producer
participation in international coffee supply chains. At the same
time, their blockchain-enabled transaction record offers pub-
licly available FOB (export-level) price transparency. Different
Alibaba-style web platforms and apps allow producers and
others to offer any coffee they want on the open global market,
and for roasters in other countries to view and order. This is an
important step in the empowerment of producers to control Photo / Visuals
how they are presented to buyers, though the physical trading
component is likely only efficiently for participating traders and
large producers. Earlier this year, after a decisive pivot, the
USAID-funded Coffee For Peace program in Colombia held a
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