Having joined Sustainable Harvest® in June of this year, Let’s Talk Coffee 2013 in Salinitas, El Salvador, was my first Let’s Talk Coffee® ever. Needless to say, the event was one to remember. I had heard a great deal about Let’s Talk Coffee® from my colleagues and our supply chain partners before going, but once I was in El Salvador I quickly realized that to really understand how powerful and invigorating Let’s Talk Coffee® is, you have to go experience it yourself.
For those of you who may not be familiar with Let’s Talk Coffee®, the annual event brings together Sustainable Harvest’s® supply chain to strengthen relationships, discuss and debate pressing issues in the industry, and prepare for challenges in the year ahead. If you want to witness the power of Sustainable Harvest’s® Relationship Coffee Model firsthand, look no further. This is the place to see it all in action. The result of simply bringing roasters, producers, NGOs, academia, government officials, and others together around an impactful business model is most impressive. Having everyone together in one place sparks relationships, discussions, and ideas that would otherwise never come into being, and they often have the potential to transform the supply chain in ways that impact thousands of lives and result in greater amounts of quality, responsibly sourced coffee in consumers’ cups.
Let’s Talk Coffee® was an incredible opportunity for me to meet all of these stakeholders in Sustainable Harvest’s® supply chain for the first time, and when I spoke to them I learned a lot about why Let’s Talk Coffee is such a unique event. Even though a great deal of specialty coffee is bought and sold in a transparent manner, most transactions take place without the roaster and the producer ever meeting face to face. Let’s Talk Coffee® presents an opportunity for roasters and producers to meet and strengthen their relationship over the course of five days. During this time they not only have a chance to grow their business, but to learn about the challenges each other face at origin and in consumer markets. This mutual understanding fosters a sustainable relationship that allows roaster and producer to navigate challenges like volatile markets and climate change together.
Other participants at Let’s Talk Coffee, like financiers, government officials, and expert speakers, help producers and roasters overcome the challenges they face through knowledge sharing and providing access to resources the supply chain needs to thrive. This year, the major presenters at Let’s Talk Coffee were Oliver Strand, a renowned New York Times fine foods columnist, and representatives from the Stanford University Design School. While these speakers presented on very different topics – Mr. Strand on consumer disconnect with specialty coffee and the Stanford representatives on innovative coffee processing devices – I was struck by how they both challenged their audiences to consider the specialty coffee industry from a new, broader perspective. They reinforced the fact that Let’s Talk Coffee is not a place to come and hear about the industry’s status quo, but rather to have your preconceived notions about the industry challenged, and to consider how new thinking can improve sustainability, profitability, and quality in the industry.
While there was much to learn throughout the day, the focus of the event shifted each night to reflect on the success of relationship coffee and celebrate the relationships Sustainable Harvest and its partners have formed over the years. Let’s Talk Coffee 2013 marked the inception of the annual HarVee awards, which acknowledge producers for their achievements in quality, productivity, and growth. The event was complete with a red carpet and a white tablecloth dinner. It was great to see producers recognized for their hard work and to see the entire supply chain celebrate shared success together.
Our Let's Talk Coffee management team recently announced that Let’s Talk Coffee 2014 is going to be in Panama, home of amazing coffees like the Esmeralda Special Geisha. All I can say is that I can’t wait to see the supply chain gathered again in a new origin, ready to tackle the challenges the next year presents and reconnect around Sustainable Harvest’s Relationship Coffee Model. It’s an amazing movement to be a part of, and there’s no better place to experience Relationship Coffee than at Let’s Talk Coffee.
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