Café Local

This idea is based on aid by trade. Aid does not inspire people to continue to invest in sustainability (people, planet and profit). Besides, coffee growers and cooperations in Costa Rica explicity noted to us they did not want aid but trade. These people are (emerging) professionals but they need help in entering the tightly controlled international markets! Direct aid is only a solution for those farmers who cannot produce efficiently and effecitvely (fair trade system). We want to sell different quantities and qualities targeted at individal and larger consumers. Costa Rican growers and corporations can send us the coffee. An online coffe store (www.cafelocal.nl) will sell the products. Initial investment costs are low. Café Local can start with approximately 10.000 euro (plus ofcourse the valuable contacts we have!). The investments go to the development of the webstore and marketing mainly.

Target group is the coffee drinking society in The Netherlands to start with. There is a tendency for more than the usual gold or red blend the big roasters deliver. Most coffee machines allow people to have an excellent cup of coffee at home. The big roasters are however very prudent about delivering new tastes of coffee because a change in taste of the consumer will endanger the demand for their market-dominating blends. There is growing awareness for sustainable and traceable products, as well as high quality coffee beans (arabica in stead of a blend with robusta). The market for sustainable quality coffee is in an initial phase and can therefore grow very fast. When people have an idea where the coffee comes from by keeping the chain short and traceable, an increase in interest in the product is expected. We target on both individual consumers and larger consumers such as ‘aware’ companies/institutions, restaurants and bars.

Café Local opens up a new market for developing countries and brings new tastes of sustainable coffee to the coffee consumer in Europe. By using an existing certification system for bulk coffee (Utz Kapeh) we ensure the sustainability aspects of the product. There are other coffee initiatives in the world that are based on sustainable coffee (different certification systems). Most of them only look at the gourmet coffee, which is a small percentage of the market. We also take quality bulk coffee into account. In this way we will also enhance the income of farmes who cannot produce gourmet coffee (by geographical limitations etc)! Besides, almost no initiatives are based on the idea of leaving the most added value in the producing countries and importing end-products to Europe (processing, roasting, packing and branding the coffee). The technology for roasting and packing in Costa Rica and other countries is already very professional and Utz-kapeh certification is done by independent organisations.

Marlies Batterink and Maarten Bruns created the idea of Café Local together and will be the core of the initiative. Café Local will work with larger local growers and local cooperations of small farmers, with whom we already established contacts. Individual small farmers are not able to deliver certified quality packaged coffee. At this moment we have contacts in Costa Rica, Kenya and Ethiopia. It is easily possible to extend the scope of the project to more coffee producing countries. Also the target group can be extended in time to other coffee drinking western countries. For the certification system we make use of an existing system managed by Utz Kapeh. This certification system is based on sustainability for bulk coffee production. This is already operational in Costa Rica and other countries and still extending. Its headquarters is based in Amsterdam, with many regional offices (www.utzkapeh.org). We already have contacts with the regional manager in Costa Rica.

The most inportant thing about an internet store is to start traffic up. Fortunately internet is available in almost every household in western countries. Direct contact with the target groups will however be necessary. We will invite a small group of interested individuals and larger consumers. We are thinking of the universities we studied at (30.000 students!), some acquainted restaurants and cafes and ofcourse friends and family. In Holland we also have a lot of means for ‘free publicity’, especially when a good cause is attached. There are various possibilities e.g. free ‘boomerang’ postcards, articles in newspapers and magazines, local television and internetlinks. We can also use our professional network. The website has to look attractive too. We already interested some acquainted professional builders for this. We deliver different quantities, qualities and tastes with according prices to ensure a balanced offer. We expect to reach at least 100.000 people and expect 5.000-10.000 to become small and large customers.

Because the added value will stay in coffee producing countries itself, larger coffee growers and cooperations of small farmers will be able to maximise the added value on their product. This leads to an economically sustainable coffee sector in Costa Rica. Besides, cooperations will invest the extra money in local communities to enhance the standard of living of their community. Investing in social and ecological standards is only profitable for farmers when they get the added value for their certified production this way. Utz Kapeh certified coffee ensures basic standards of social and ecological sustainability. More profit, more possibilities, more investment in people and planet. In the beginning we focus on about 3000 small farmers (working in Costa Rican cooperations) to start bussiness. After a year, we could extend our focus to many more countries. The biggest spinn-off is that the processed coffee has direct access to the western market. The producing countries/regions can be easily extended as well as the consumer markets. This reasonable small initiative can have large effects for the future of many coffee growers.