We want fairer coffee

People in Europe drink more than 30 billion cups of coffee a year. Millions of family farmers grow the coffee to meet this huge demand. Far too many of these families live in abject poverty because the price of coffee is too low.

What's wrong with the coffee trade?

Coffee is grown by millions of family farmers. For many of these families, coffee growing is not profitable because the purchase prices are too low. In many cases, they can't even cover their production costs.

Because coffee is traded on the stock exchange, the price fluctuates constantly. A bad season in a major coffee-producing country like Brazil can quickly drive the price up, just as overproduction can cause it to fall.

However, the contracts for the purchase prices of green coffee are not negotiated on the stock exchanges. They are usually signed one year in advance. If the price of coffee on the stock exchange subsequently rises, the producers don't benefit from it. The cash only flows into the merchants' pockets.

According to the 2020 Coffee Barometer, half of the world's green coffee is traded through the accounts of just five companies: Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, LDC, ECOM Agroindustrial, Volcafe and Olam.

These corporations have substantial market power and aren't afraid to use it. For example, when prices soared at the end of 2021, producers in Brazil, Colombia and Ethiopia refused to deliver their harvest at the agreed prices, because they were much lower. LDC, Volcafe and Olam then went through the courts to force them to surrender the goods.

Where does the coffee at gebana come from?

Mexico – Maya Vinic

The Maya Vinic cooperative is an offshoot of the civil indigenous organisation Las Abejas. The members of Las Abejas founded the Maya Vinic coffee cooperative in order to eliminate their dependence on intermediaries. Today, Maya Vinic has around 600 members.

Maya Vinic supplies a portion of the beans for our House Blend Espresso, House Blend Coffee, House Blend Honey and the coffees of Café Rebeldía.

Peru – Origin Coffee Lab

Origin Coffee Lab brings together 220 coffee producers in Peru and sells their beans on the Algrano platform. It all began in 2015 with the idea of democratising the global coffee supply chain. The digital platform connects producers directly with roasters and wholesalers. The aim is to ensure simple relationships between the various players in the supply chain, transparent pricing and efficient logistics.

Origin Coffee Lab supplies a portion of the beans for our House Blend Espresso, House Blend Coffee as well as our House Blend Honey.

Colombia – Asprovega and Asproaurora

In addition to our house blends, our range also includes a single-origin coffee from Colombia. This honey-processed coffee is sourced from the Asprovega and Asproaurora cooperatives. Their members produce coffee in harmony with nature but are not officially certified as organic, as they say that certification is not yet worthwhile for them.

Café Rebeldía

We also import and sell coffee from Café Rebeldía. Direkte Solidarität mit Chiapas is the organisation behind this coffee. The group is now active throughout southern Mexico and supports the Zapatista resistance. As part of this work, the group has been supplying Switzerland with coffee from Mexico under the name Café Rebeldía since 2000. gebana has been importing and selling their coffee since 2008.

The beans for Café Rebeldía come from the Zapatista cooperatives Maya Vinic and Yachil and, since August 2021, the Corazón de La Montaña cooperative, which supplies Rebeldía with robusta beans for the new espresso.

Who sets the price of coffee at gebana?

In Mexico and Colombia, the cooperatives come to us with a proposed price. We then negotiate this starting price, taking the current world market price into account. The result is usually well above the current world market price.

Negotiations take place about six months before the harvest. Once the contract has been concluded, we pay 50 percent of the agreed amount up front. The cooperatives receive the remaining amount after delivery.

In Peru, the producers set their selling price for the Algrano platform.

Collaboration over competition

In spring 2023, we added two new coffees to our range. For these two coffees, we work with partners who share our values and vision: Isule Coffee and Suedhang Coffee. Our aim with this collaboration is to expand our product range while supporting companies that are committed to a fairer coffee trade.

Uganda – Isule Coffee

Nadja Tans and Andrew Katumba started Isule Coffee as a way to involve family farmers in creating value and generating income through coffee. Isule works directly with family farmers in West Uganda. There are no middlemen.

At Isule, the producers set the price of the green coffee. In addition to this purchase price, family farmers get back up to 2 francs per kilo. They use the money to upgrade infrastructure and pay their children's school fees.

Tan and Katumba managed the very first export from Uganda in 2016 via our crowd project platform. Since then, their company has been campaigning for a coffee price that can provide a living income, along with the highest quality coffee. Their mission is to ensure complete transparency from farm to cup. We're thrilled to be crossing paths with them again.

Vietnam – Suedhang Kaffee

Tübingen-based coffee roaster Suedhang is made up of a team of coffee experts with a subtle feel for the special combination of aromas in every harvest. Suedhang is also radically transparent. All invoices and corporate receipts, such as fuel receipts and payslips, are available on its website. The same applies to the purchase prices for green coffee, which are all well above the Fairtrade minimum price.

Suedhang describes itself as an experimental roaster that wants to do things differently. The coffee Suedhang supplies us with from Vietnam is a good example. It's a 100% canephora – also known as robusta. This might sound crazy to connoisseurs, but Suedhang has developed its own roasting method, which transforms the robusta, commonly designated as inferior, into a coffee that's bursting with aroma.

The people in charge at Suedhang also consider themselves activists. For one thing, they've launched a protest against the higher VAT on vegan milk alternatives in Germany. Suedhang's political commitment and pioneering spirit are just some of the reasons why we think they're a perfect fit for gebana.