What is a Coffee Cooperative?
Sometimes you’ll see the world “co-op” or “cooperative” on one of our coffees, but what does that mean exactly? We’re diving into this today on the blog!
Coffee cooperatives can be found all over the world. You might see this phrase on a bag of coffee from Kenya or Colombia or Southeast Asia. It’s a fairly common practice in the specialty coffee world for small farmers to pool their resources and share a facility, supplies, and even business tools like marketing. Essentially a coffee co-op is when a group of small coffee farmers pay a fee or split costs to come together in order to share resources in this manner.
So what does that look like practically? And how does it affect the coffee? And can it still be considered direct trade? These are common questions surrounding coffee cooperatives!
On a practical level, when a coffee farmer joins a cooperative they gain access to business resources such as farming supplies, technical assistance, low interest rate loans, direct connections to buyers, help with certifications, education access, and more. Of course, this looks different in different parts of the world. Take Kenya for example: historically up to half of Kenyan coffee farmers are a part of a co-op. These small farms bring the harvested coffee cherries to the co-op to process, package, and export their coffees. That’s a pretty extensive amount of the coffee producing process that happens at these co-ops, but that’s not a blueprint for all cooperatives. Co-ops in somewhere like Colombia can look a lot different. However, the intention is the same: provide resources and support to small coffee farms and to help them export their coffees to a wider audience.
As with anything, it’s important to do your research when working with a coffee co-op. While we hope they all have the best of intentions for their farmers, some co-ops are better than others. The level of education, transparency, and sometimes certifications directly affect the quality of coffees coming out of co-ops. Really good ones provide more and more training and access to supplies for their farmers to continually learn about and improve their product.
Absolutely coffees from cooperatives are still considered direct trade! In many cases access to a co-op helps small farms with micro-lots share their coffees with the world whereas without a co-op they would only be able to sell it locally. This means more chances for you to try really special, high quality coffees from farmers who otherwise wouldn’t be able to export their coffees to reach you. As with any coffee, just make sure you’re shopping from a roaster or shop that values direct trade and the producers they work with. Quality co-ops that are truly helping their members’ businesses grow will provide clear transparency to importers and roasters about the producers and origins of the coffees.
So there you have it: coffee cooperatives are amazing resources that provide value to their members and help really special lots of coffee from small producers reach more consumers. Seeing the word “co-op” on a bag of specialty coffee is not a red flag; in fact, it’s often the opposite! Go for that coffee! Chances are it’s a really special product lovingly produced from a small farmer, processed alongside their neighbors, and exported with the help of a strong community.
