Turning Data into (Ethical) Action | Green Coffee Summit 2022
In 2019, Colombia-based Azahar Coffee Company launched “A Sustainable Coffee Buyer’s Guide” to address the information asymmetry between green coffee buyers and sellers over the value of coffee.
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The Guide uses manually collected data to track the earnings and costs of production of coffee producers across Colombia to inform socially conscious coffee buyers about the price point required for farmers to achieve different levels of income – from a poverty line income to a prosperous income. In 2022, “A Sustainable Coffee Buyer’s Guide” morphed into a digital platform with specific functionalities for green coffee buyers and roasters, including a customizable budgeting tool. In this presentation, Vera Espindola Rafael will introduce the Guide and the methodology for data collection, reflect on how it has been used since it was published in 2019, and discuss with Summit attendees how green coffee buyers can use data to make ethical purchasing decisions that recognize the value that is created by specialty coffee producers and rewarded by specialty coffee drinkers in North America (and beyond).
About the Presenter
Vera Espíndola Rafael
Director Strategic Initiatives, Azahar Coffee Company
Vera is a Development Economist with a focus in agricultural products. She serves as an advisor for the Mexican Secretary of Agriculture on specific coffee related activities such as living and prosperous income and serves on the Board of the SCA and The Chain Collaborative. She worked at the research arm at ANACAFE and subsequently as Regional Manager Latin America at UTZ, now called Rainforest Alliance. From 2016 to 2018, Vera worked for the Mexican Secretary of Agriculture focused on harmonizing the elements of sustainable coffee production in the national coffee program. She is also leading the Strategic Initiatives of Azahar Coffee Company, specifically the research behind “A Sustainable Coffee Buyer’s Guide”, a new pricing tool, and initiating export operations in Mexico. She has published with the Specialty Coffee Association, “A Business Case to Increase Specialty Coffee Consumption in Producing Countries” and also with IICA on “El Mercado del Café en la región Mesoamericana.
Find all of the presentations from this event in the freely available Green Coffee Summit Resource Library or learn more about our upcoming Green Coffee Summits: green.sca.coffee.