Just a few days ago, I walked into a coffee shop and bought a 250gr bag of Kenyan coffee for €20 approx. While I'm happy to pay that kind of money for a very good Kenya in a bag full of tasty promises, when I got home I found only disappointment.

It is an open secret within the specialty industry, that Kenyan coffees have been in a low the last couple of years, and probably it is one of the most controversial topics right now. As you may know, Kenya is one of the most prized origins within the specialty coffee world, it is sought by importers and roasters from all over the world as an origin of outstanding quality, intense sweetness, citrus/winey acidities and velvety bodies.

We would normally cup 500+ samples from Kenya each season, between origin and lab cuppings. Maybe the right number is something closer to 1,000 samples, between February and March each year since 2016. This year the quantity was lower for obvious reasons. And while it's common knowledge among coffee connoisseurs from around the world, that there has been a disruption in the quality of this great origin, we can discuss on the causes or how much it has been affected, but I don’t think anybody that understand well the Kenyan coffee industry, can deny there is a problem.

​This disruption in quality according to our understanding, can be explained by three main reasons: (1) Climate change; (2) Introduction new varieties and (3) Failure of the Nairobi coffee Exchange (NCE) to reach farmers with proper income and farming supplies.

If you are curious on how will the consequences of climate change hit us, here in Kenya you can get a small taste of it. In 2017, the Kenyan government declared a drought national state of disaster, where 2.7 million people were at risk of famine. Although, the most affected areas were the northern and coastal counties of Kenya, where there is no coffee production, still the coffee industry got affected, especially in the central coffee regions, where the best lots are produced, because the rains were much less than in normal years.
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Here is what happens to a coffee tree during a drought. When water demand of a coffee tree is higher than supply, drought stress occurs. Drought stress causes wilting, yellowing of the leaves, advanced leaf fall, and premature fruit ripening or fruit drop.
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Kenya gain its prestige as an outstanding origin around the coffee world for many factors, including: altitude, soil type, rainfall pattern, processing expertise, overall quality; but one of the main reasons of its success was their coffee varieties. In the 1930s, SL28 and SL34 were the two most famous varieties created by Scott Labs, hence the prefix SL. These varieties produce coffees of excellent cup quality and are medium/high yielding under the right circumstances of altitude and rainfall, but are susceptible to diseases such as CBD and CLR.

Aware of the disease problem, in 1985 the Kenyan Coffee Research Institute developed a new variety call Ruiru11. The name given by the town where the station where it's was developed was located. The variety is not only resistant to CBD and CLR but also, it's an extremely high yielding variety, allowing farmers with a small plot of land (which are getting smaller by generation after generation) to increase their production significantly. Although, the intention was to develop a variety with similar cup quality to those of SLs, but the truth is that quality wise, they are very distant.

Then, Batian was developed to solve the quality problem of Ruiru 11. By the year 2010 the Kenya Coffee Research introduced this variety which is much closer to SL28 (genetically speaking) than Ruiru 11. It's also resistant to CBD and CLR but it's cup quality is much better than Ruiru11 and similar to a medium quality SL28, according to some Kenyan cuppers. The best SL28 lots are still unmatchable. We believe that the future of the Kenyan coffee should focus in lot separation by variety.

In the producing world, coffee is political. Generally coffee exports are a major income earner, and in some countries such as Burundi, coffee represents as much as 80% of the total foreign currency revenue. In Ethiopia, it represents 50% of the total.

Coffee in Kenya has become a very good business for a few people, but a very bad one for most. In the 2013/14 year, a miller owed the society more than KSh74 million for cherry and mbuni (unwashed low quality coffee) while the cooperative owed farmers more than KSh85 million. However, instead of remitting the money to the society for payments, Kenya Cooperative Coffee Exporters (KCCE) paid creditors (Sasini) KSh48 million and Kenya Cooperative Coffee Mills (KCCM) KSh25 million, leaving the farmers with nothing.

Among big investors and marketing agents around the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) there is worry. Climate change is not helping to increase coffee production neither its quality, rather the very opposite; Introduction of new varieties haven't worked the way it was expected to; And farmers are very disappointed with the crop, to say the less.

The government is searching for new ways to revive the ailing coffee sector, among them the introduction of cheap loans for coffee farmers. This will be done through a KSh3 billion Coffee Cherry Fund, farmers will be able to access with an interest rate of 3%. This comes as a wake-up call, seeing that statistics show that Kenyan coffee production for the 2019-2020 year dropped to 650,000 bags, the lowest output in over 50 years.

Something has to change in Kenya, this business model isn't working and the bubble might be about to explode.

The end.
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1.- The birth of a new reality.
 
With this article, we begin a new series of educational content, this time focusing on one of the biggest and probably most controversial topic in the coffee industry: PRICE.
 
All of us who work here know that our industry is in an unprecedented crisis in various fields; Ethical, Environmental, Genetics and Socioeconomic. We know that the prices we pay to coffee growers (with only few exceptions) is well below their production costs. And when we pay excellent prices for quality, for example in Kenya; we know that most of this revenue does not reach farmers, because there are so many hands, so much corruption and so much bureaucracy in the industry, that most of the benefit is lost in the darkness of a network of connections that we do not fully understand.
 
Other countries such as Burundi, have a system absolutely regulated by the central government. There is a standard price established for one kg of "quality A" cherry (500 BFR = 0.19USD) and for a kg of "quality B" cherry (250 BFR = $ 0.09). Any surcharge in the payment to coffee growers depends exclusively on the charity and generosity of multinationals that are extracting the most important natural resource of Burundi (Coffee represents 80% of the country's foreign currency income).
 
At the time of writing, the future price of Arabica Coffee contracted to September 2020 is 0.98 USD per pound.
 
Our proposal, is that at least, within the specialty coffee industry, importers pay 1USD per Kg of high quality cherry, in all the countries where we are currently working.
 
In the following posts, we will develop more this idea.

2.- THE GOLDEN RULE
 
To produce 1 kg of green coffee we need 6 kg of cherry. Of these initial 6 kg, 5 are "lost in translation" during the production process, mainly due to pulping and drying (evaporation of moisture, which in washed parchment amounts up to 45-50%, and in the case of the ripe cherry to 67%).
 
To increase the farmers profitability, studies suggest that, it is highly recommended to generate incentives at origin for the use of these by-products (husk, pulp, pectin, water) as raw material for the production of: beverages, fertilizers, biogas, livestock feed, fuel, etc. These by-products when not treated, are highly polluting and generate serious environmental problems in the surrounding communities.
 
In our real coffee world, competition is imperfect. Meaning that there is a wide range of inequities between the actors of the industry. First of all, we have few buyers (5 or 6 big corporations) that control the world market price. And second, we have many small sellers with little or no power of negotiation. The latter living in less diversified weak exporting markets that depend on the exporting of one or few natural resources to obtain foreign exchange.
 
Therefore, there is an imbalance in the profitability that the coffee business is generating in the West, compared with how the business impact farmers in producing countries. Today the prices paid for a Kg of Cherry are way below 1 USD in most producing countries and we all must do something about it.
 
The Golden Rule: "treat others as you want to be treated".

3.- TRANSPARENCY NOT CHARITY
 
The problem with charity is that it generally attends symptoms rather than causes. Charitable donations are not the best proposal to solve the problem of poverty or extreme poverty of the world's coffee growers. Rather, they are a temporary solution to a problem that requires more effort and better organization of economic relations between countries.
 
Why do we establish a price hierarchy for green coffee and not for the price of cherry? Because there are many factors that influence the final result of the processing of that cherry. But we could also put the argument that there are also many influential factors in the transport of green coffee from origin to our respective warehouses.
 
So why not coordinate with the cooperatives or producers a pre-established price per kilogram of cherry according to it quality levels? How it is done in Burundi for example, where for 1 Kg of cherry "quality A" 500 BUF (0.19 USD) are paid; and for 1 Kg of cherry "quality B" 250 BUF (0.096 USD) are paid. Prices in Burundi are set by the government, but they are too low. Our proposal is to establish four cherry qualities and thus encourage coffee growers to make a more selective and higher quality harvest to obtain a better price.
 
For example, for a kilogram of cherry of the best quality "A", we should demand that at least 1 USD will be paid, for qualities B, C and D, this value will be decreased by a percentage that is financially sustainable for all. But we must demand transparency from cooperatives/producers, otherwise we will never solve the problem of the extreme poverty of coffee growers, and will be using charity as a relief for the constant abuse of neo-colonialism in Africa and the World.
 
It is not charity, it is payment for a job well done.

4.- THE UNFAIRNESS OF FAIR TRADE
 
With this article, we end this series of educational content, this time focusing on one of the most important and probably most controversial topics of the coffee industry: THE TRUE COST OF COFFEE.
 
The main problem with certifications is that they are for-profit organizations and have failed to condemn and stop the unethical and abusive behaviour of multinationals. Instead, they shield their operations, leaving small farmers from around the world unprotected.
 
In a recently published report called: "Not Fit For Purpose", it is pointed out that these certification companies have been captured and dominated by multinationals, and therefore, their intrinsic purpose for existence is destined to fail.
 
The report also notes that, during the "shady" yearly monitoring visits, auditors are subcontracted and paid by multinationals for evaluation, which creates a clear conflict of interest. Eventually, we cannot trust the claims made by these certifications, because abuses continue to occur and words such as "fair" and "sustainable" are misleading.
 
Often people ask us how we (consumers) can help to stop these abuses from happening? And we truly believe that we have a great power in our hands, the power of decision-making. To generate an impact with our decisions, we must inform and educate ourselves, read the labels and question everything; because only by spending our money in the businesses that are being truly ethical, fair and sustainable, we will generate a positive feedback loop that sooner or later will reach coffee growers.
 
Question everything and enjoy your coffee.
 
THE END

​There is a simple rule in the world of environmental sustainability, and this is: "If any waste or pollution of any kind is generated, someone further down the production chain will be affected and will have to pay for it."

In an industry such as Coffee, which generates revenues of more than USD100 billion a year, curiously, it is not the big corporations the ones called to lead the changes in the area of environmental sustainability; but is us! The small companies focusing on high quality coffee on the specialty niche. Although we do not contribute significantly in terms of pollution or waste and we take a very small percentage of the revenue mentioned above, we cannot wait for Nestle or Starbucks for example, to take the measures that will make a real difference in this regard. We could wait a lifetime and more for this to happen.

​Specialty coffee is not only about serving a quality cup, it also tells the story about how the lot was sourced, if an ethical price was paid to the producer, if the given traceability is relevant and honest, if the logistics are green and efficient, if the production of that lot did not include any forced or child labour, or if it generated abuse or poverty of any kind.

Undoubtedly, the cornerstone of this whole idea is quality, without it, all the subsequent philosophy falls apart. But when we get the quality coffee we want, it is essential to work on the conceptual aspects of specialty coffee and make them prevail.

In environmental matters, we have committed with two emblematic projects to which we contribute in a humble but consistent manner. We donate 2% of our annual sales to two foundations that work on the protection of Elephants in Kenya and Gorillas in Rwanda and their habitat.

We will never ask you to support us financially to give for these projects, but we want you to know that when you buy a Kilimanjaro Specialty Coffees bag, 2% of the price you pay goes directly to the protection of Elephants in various regions of Kenya and Gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.

Enjoy your African coffee and protect the planet, because it is the only one we have.

​In August of the year 2018, the price of coffee reached levels considered alarming by the majority of those who work in the coffee industry. For the first time in 12 years, the "C" price in New York fell below 100cts/lb. While it is true, the average price of the last 12 years is not much higher than 120cts/lb, this decline generated unprecedented reactions in the specialty coffee world, which we think is positive.

Historically, the price of coffee has been extremely volatile, due to the never ending discrepancies between supply and demand. But these constant cycles of highs and lows, have devastating effects for producers and coffee workers from around the world. Of course, in the United States this crisis goes virtually unnoticed, where the global coffee market is dominated by few multinationals: Kraft General Foods, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Sara Lee, J.M. Smucker Company, Starbucks Corporation and Dunkin’ Donuts. 

Globally, coffee is a US $ 100 billion business annually (Business Insider 2018), but producing countries only capture US $ 20 billion of this value, with most of the profits being retained in developed countries. As on the supply side, the coffee world is very fragmented, with millions of small-scale coffee farmers, the power of the business lies in the large importers and roasters, who buy the green beans and process them into various products.

But what would happen: if small coffee farmers knew exactly how much their product is worth? If they could calculate their production, logistics and marketing costs? And if they could obtain a price that promotes the quality and sustainability of their production?

​We strongly believe that the key to unlock this crisis, does not lie on the same companies that have controlled the business for centuries, but it is at the origin. It should not be New York, London or Berlin, who decides what is the "fair price" that a coffee farmer must obtain. But it must be the coffee farmer, informed and empowered, who demand the price that he deems appropriate, according to the quality he obtained and the investment he made.

We have an invaluable opportunity in the young and new generations of coffee growers, with unlimited access to online information, eager to learn and with a global mind set. There is where we must aim all our efforts to improve  this reality.

Let's make this a sustainable business for everyone and enjoy your specialty coffee!

​On our last trip to Kenya we met the great "Dr. James", who works at the "Kenya Coffee Research Institute" station in Nyeri. In this place, he explained, how they are performing grafting of Ruiru 11 with SL 28, and the importance of its result for the future of the industry.

Grafting in Agriculture, is a technique where tissues of different plants are joined to continue their growth together. This technique seeks to obtain the best of each of the varieties. Generally in plant breeding, the greater the genetic distance between the two parents, the more "vigorous" the child will be (World Coffee Research).

​Ruiru 11 is a variety of high productivity and resistance to diseases. But the problem is that its root is too short, and it is not able to get enough nutrients from the rich African soil. This usually causes poor results in the cup, without the usual complexity of other varieties grown in Kenya.

In contrast, SL 28, is a variety, which as we all know, has an excellent cup quality, but it has low productivity and is susceptible to diseases such as Leaf Rust or CBD.

Dr. James and his team are grafting leaves of Ruiru11 (scion) with a root of SL 28 (stock), to create resistant varieties of high productivity, with the capacity to absorb more nutrients and hopefully, obtain a better quality in the cup .

​It is urgent that we begin to work together towards the development of new varieties and the increment the genetic diversity of this specie that we like so much.

Enjoy the genetic and organoleptic diversity of your Kenyan coffee!

​These initiatives were called "The Green Revolution" and involved the use of high yielding varieties, higher fertilizers dosages, intensive and mono cropping, the development of highly toxic and life damaging pesticides, among others.

After this changes, the food production increased dramatically in the world, and it is said the over 1 billion people were saved from starvation. Today, this very achievement, though remarkable, has costed us dearly in socioeconomic terms for small farmers, reduction of biodiversity, increase of green house emissions and health issues related to the excessive use of pesticides.

​According to the World Coffee Research "most African coffee-producing countries produce substantially lower volumes of coffee than elsewhere. This has profound impacts for farmer livelihoods when farmers are paid per pound of cherry. There is a widespread need for replanting with young trees that are resistant to major diseases and pests (including coffee berry disease, coffee leaf rust, antestia bug and stem borer), and with improved varieties. The World Coffee Research believes that over 50% of coffee trees in Africa are more than 50 years old."

​In Kenya particularly, we have always selected lots where the cultivars are exclusively SL28 and SL34, because we love the complexity, dense sweetness, citric acidity and the viscosity in the cup of these two varieties. But we understand the unpostponable necessity of experimenting and promoting new varieties with higher yieldings, tolerant to diseases and adaptability to warmer climates.

Our new lot Kabunyeria AB is the first ever lot we source of Ruiru11 and Batian in Kenya. Cultivated in the Kericho county at an average altitude of well over 2000 masl, this lot is cupping great for espresso, very sweet with a full body and a gentle well balanced citric acidity.

We invite you to try it and discover the full potential of Kenyan coffees and its new varieties of the 21st century. 

Enjoy your Kenya Kabunyeria AB!

​Certainly, the specialty coffee industry has grown exponentially in the last five years. The progress we have seen and experienced in farming, processing, logistics, roasting and brewing are undeniable and certainly admirable. But is this level of growth sustainable in the long term? Are we neglecting quality to privilege the quantity?

​We must never forget, that the fundamental pillar of our industry is quality. From farm to cup, what sets us apart from other sectors of the coffee business, is simply quality. But not only the quality of the bean, also the quality of our commercial relationships (ETHICS), the kind of information we deliver (TRACEABILITY), our production processes (CUPPING), the way we relate to the environment (SUSTAINABILITY).

In times of massive festivals, where the offer is overwhelming, the visual stimulation excessive and the time limited, we must ask ourselves: How can one be able to consume and digest so much information and coffee in such a short period of time? Ask also, what is the purpose of this massive festivals? And with this, where do we want to go from here, and if this is the right path?

It is always a good time to make the necessary adjustments and amend the route.

Question everything and enjoy your coffee!

If climate change will be held in a temperature increase of 2ºC or less (Aim of the Paris Agreement 2015); By 2050 it is estimated that 40% of all Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions will be caused by ships and airplanes only, if not properly regulated.

​Right now, there are about 50,000 ships sailing the oceans and seas, to bring us 90% of all the products we consume daily. From bananas to petrol and from cell phones to coffee beans. Almost everything the world produces is transported by ships.
 
And despite the fact that many innovations have been made to improve the efficiency of airframes, engines, aerodynamics and the general operations of airplanes, only in the European Union, greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87% between 1990 and 2006.

​In Kilimanjaro Specialty Coffees we travel directly to origin to search, cup and select those extraordinary coffee lots you enjoy so much. We can't do this work by video-conference or by phone, it is essential for us, to know the reality of the origin and the coffee producers. As well as for these coffees to reach your roaster at an attractive and competitive price, we must transport them by sea.
 
But we are aware of the impact that our work generates in the environment. Therefore, from this year onwards we will begin to measure the CO2 emissions that are released into the atmosphere due to our production process.

​By identifying and quantifying our sources of CO2 emissions, we can define better objectives and more effective emission reduction strategies, in addition to a compensation commitment through the generation of incentives for planting more coffee trees in the different places of the world where we are working.
 
Our goal is to become a "Neutral Carbon" company, which means we are removing the same amount of CO2 from the atmosphere, as the one we are generating.
 
For a healthier planet, with more and better coffee.

​The model "takeaway" or "coffee to go" in disposable cups, is undoubtedly necessary and an important source of income for coffee shops, but we must be aware of its silent and unprecedented impact on the environment.

​What it looks like a simple "paper or cardboard" cup, also contains a plastic lamina produced on the basis of petrol (polyethylene), which makes these containers more resistant and able to contain liquid. The problem is that the production of these disposable cups entails four fundamental problems: 1.- The indiscriminate felling of trees to produce cellulose and paper; 2.- Chemicals are emitted in the environment to produce plastic; 3.- Non-clean energy is used for transportation; 4.- The waste generated ends up in landfills or directly in our oceans, and it will take more than 50-100 years  to breakdown.

Another necessary evil of the industry, are the GrainPro, Ecotact, Vacuum bags. Although its impact is not comparable to that of disposable cups by volume, we would like to know your experience in the use, reuse and recycling of this form of packaging so common today.

​We believe that the specialty coffee industry should address these problems today, and seek solutions together. A very interesting solution that we have seen, is the incentive of reduced prices to customers who bring their own mug to order their takeaway. Small changes like this can help building a more loyal clientele and spread green awareness.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!