We often say that in the coffee world we speak our own language.
It is called coffee speak.
And sometimes, it’s not all that easy to understand.
Something we hear a lot in coffee is “Direct Trade” but this is something that means different things to different people.
So here we share what Direct Trade means to us.
Long-term partnerships
Building genuine, long-term partnerships with coffee farmers, focussed on improving livelihoods and communities.
Wycliffe has worked with fellow smallholder farmers for more than 10 years.
They grow together and work together to develop new techniques in producing pure Ugandan Robusta. Their goals are to bring out the best in their coffee, to create efficiencies (saving costs and saving water for example) and boosting income for farmers and the wider community.
As with all good relationships, you have to commit to go the distance!
Unnecessary middlemen:
In a typical coffee chain there can be up to 5 levels of middlemen. More on that here.
Direct trade means cutting out any unnecessary middlemen, getting as close to smallholder farmers as possible.
This puts you in the best position to understand farmer needs and pricing.
We’re in a unique position to be a smallholder farmer-owned coffee brand. Wycliffe grows the coffee that goes into Blue Turaco packs himself and sources from nearby smallholder farmers - you can’t get more direct than that.
This also means we can pay at least 30% more than traditional routes.
One-on-one always hits different!
Beyond coffee:
Much as we love coffee, we know it’s not just about the coffee.
Direct trade, for us, means going beyond coffee and exploring new ways to boost smallholder farmer income.
We work with farmers to grow other crops, like corn, bananas, passion fruit.
As well as boosting farmer income, this is good for the soil and for the wider community. For example the corn that our smallholder farmers grow is the base for school lunches in local village schools.
So that’s the Blue Turaco Coffee approach to Direct Trade.
We hope you enjoyed the read.