Our Direct Trade purchasing strategy has been built on a few simple pillars: improving coffee quality through our experience and expertise on the ground at origin, incentive based rewards to the farmer for doing so and complete transparency of our supply chain. Those pillars support the vision of Stumptown to provide the finest coffee experience possible, whether that means while enjoying a beverage served with great customer service at one of our cafes or wholesale accounts, while brewing a pot at home enhanced by our online brew guides, or simply savoring a sip with the assurance that our Direct Trade sourcing strategy made that cup possible.
Coffee Quality
Each relationship we have established at origin is at a different stage of life. Longer standing relationships, i.e. Finca El Injerto, Finca Kilimanjaro and Gaturiri require much less maintenance than newer projects like those we have just begun in Western Ethiopia or with Alejandro Valiente in Metapan, El Salvador. Typically a relationship in its earlier stages requires a strategy visit prior to harvest, a peak harvest check-up and a follow up visit to cup, supervise shipment preparation, packaging and review the fruits of our collective labor. As mentioned our DT strategy is predicated on creating an incentive for quality and rewarding our farmers graciously for producing it.
Day lot separation is one of the key components to cup quality. Ideally, the cherry selected from each day of the harvest is separated into different lots, which are in turn separated by location on the farm and varietal (whenever possible). This ensures that the individual characteristics of each lot can be defined and improved upon by suggestions. Feedback on day lots is a constant loop between our green coffee buyers and producers to ensure that each detail is addressed at the farm level: which varietals, which processing methods and which drying methods they can rely on. They know which methods will achieve a better price and a long term relationship with Stumptown.
Incentive Based Rewards
Producing great coffee is expensive. We’ve created a tiered pricing strategy that gives the farmer an opportunity to achieve greater financial reward for their hard work. Our investment to the farmer is taken into consideration for development strategies. We know that certain steps require different costs for our producers and we want to compensate them appropriately for better quality. Each country, and really, each farm differ so greatly that we adjust and develop our relationship with each producer on an individual basis with their specific goals in mind.
Transparency of Supply Chain
We negotiate pricing directly at the farm level. We understand cost of production, we understand their quality (and their potential for quality) and we strike up deals directly with the producers themselves. Although the buck does stop with them, we have other important players in our supply chain that play critical roles in getting our coffees to us in an efficient manner. Millers, exporters and importers are dealt with individually to make certain that we know where each dollar of our final cost is being spent before these precious lots enter our roasteries.
At Stumptown, Direct Trade is not only a way of assuring that the price is negotiated directly with the producer, it is also our way of saying this one is in it for the long run.