Coffee is grown across the world within the coffee belt, from South America to Indonesia. The global coffee market produces around 11 million tonnes of coffee each year - nearly 10.5 billion kilos. The World Bank estimates that 60% of this coffee is grown by small scale farmers, yet half of those small scale farmers live in poverty. Research shows an average $4 cup nets a producer 4 cents (Shared Interest Society). 

The solution is that we need to pay fair prices for our coffee. Meine van der Graaf, board member at Climate Centre says “The prices of the past decades were too low anyway. In this model the farmers are subsidizing our cup of coffee – that is unsustainable. In the city we quietly pay six euros for a flat white, but at home it may only cost a few dimes. By focusing on quality at home, too, we believe that can be done differently”.

Fair prices ensure that coffee farmers can feed their children and pay for their school fees. It is often their only source of income. With better prices, they can invest in their farms and their own education on sustainable land management practices. It also prevents them from stopping the farming of coffee and turning to more lucrative crops. 

Coffee farmers can use the extra money to pay for equipment, irrigation systems or new seedlings. Learning sustainable land management practices like agroforestry and planting cover crops to improve the soil. They can also use the money to buy equipment to improve the processing of the coffee, leading to a better quality coffee and a better price for their coffee. 

Despite the recent hike in coffee prices, very little of the money still goes directly to the grower. This means that many coffee farmers are diversifying and looking at other crops that have more stable prices, like spices or fruit (Science Direct). They are not going to continue to grow and harvest a crop that does not keep their family fed and happy. The only way to keep farmers growing coffee is to pay them a fair price. 

Source Climate Change coffee pays a fair price for coffee. As part of our commitment to our growers, we purchase coffee a year in advance so that the farmers are sure of a stable income. This mitigates, to some extent, the fluctuation in coffee pricing but it is not a perfect solution. 

Cristina Talens, founder at Source Climate Change says “Our biggest sustainability challenge so far has been keeping our coffee affordable. Specialty single-origin organic beans are expensive, and when the market spikes, costs can double overnight. We’ve managed to mitigate this a bit by buying in bulk directly from growers and planning purchases almost two years ahead—but the coming year still keeps me up at night”.

She started the company with one purpose - sourcing from farmers in reforestation and conservation areas and rewarding them by paying a fair price for good quality sustainable coffee and thus ensuring better conditions for the farmers. That still applies today. Buying Source Climate Change coffee means you can sleep at night knowing that you have paid a fair price for your cuppa.