FarmersDirect Coffee geeft koffieboeren inspraak in de koffieketen
New platform innovates coffee sector through open source blockchain and by making farmers co-owners
The new company FarmersDirect Coffee wants to completely reform the coffee industry. Knowledge sharing and co-ownership, from plantation to final product, will be placed with the coffee farmers. In addition, the production chain will be made completely transparent through open source blockchain: a decentralized online database managed not by one person, but by everyone on the network. The blockchain will be put into use starting today.
The purpose of the platform is thus twofold. On the one hand, FarmersDirect Coffee’s goal is to make farmers co-owners of the company. Part of this strategy of FarmersDirect Coffee is that member farmers can share data via a special app to improve their entrepreneurship and production. On the other hand, FarmersDirect Coffee wants to make the sustainability, origin and quality of coffee beans transparent to everyone by 2023.
Coffee route fully traceable
The current practice is as follows: after the coffee beans have been harvested, they reach the consumer via exporters, transporters, importers, roasters, the exchange market, distributors and buyers. All the parties involved in the chain apply their own margins, with the coffee farmers often losing out. Moreover, information about this route is often untraceable, so that little is known to consumers about the origin of the coffee.
FarmersDirect Coffee makes the production chain transparent from start to finish, using open source blockchain technology. Transactions are managed by the entire chain, are transparent and irreversible. This gives the coffee farmers a better bargaining position for the cost price of their beans. The consumer can see the route taken by scanning the QR code on the packaging.
Special app to integrate forward
FarmersDirect Coffee is the first coffee company where farmers and cooperatives are co-owners of the platform, by obtaining (profit) shares by delivering coffee beans and also having the option to buy additional shares. Linked via the they form a network across three continents in which they gain access to relevant data on each other’s harvest, fertilization opportunities and plantation management. This enables large-scale benchmarking and optimization of the harvest. Ward de Groote, co-founder of FarmersDirect Coffee: ‘The biggest gain is the app for the farmers, so they can share information themselves, collaborate and purchase better, and manage exports themselves. The ultimate goal is for them to become roastery owners themselves. Then you really get a forward move, as is happening here with, for example, FrieslandCampina.’
Organic & CO2-neutral
FarmersDirect Coffee’s mission is not only to shorten the chain, but also to innovate in the area of sustainability. ‘We want to grow towards organic, regenerative coffee cultivation with sustainable attention to people and the environment. We are going to continue to reduce the CO2 emissions of our transport movements,’ says initiator Cees Homburg.
About FarmersDirect Coffee
FarmersDirect Coffee was founded by three entrepreneurs who want to innovate and reform the coffee world. The best coffee produced sustainably, with a fair price for the farmer and for the market. Using data and blockchain, FarmersDirect Coffee helps farmers achieve lower costs and a better harvest. In this way, the company stands for a completely traceable and transparent coffee chain.
