Every month Sustainable Harvest® distributes the Relationship Coffee News newsletter, featuring a letter from our President David Griswold. Sign up here to join the mailing list, and in case you missed last month’s dispatch, please enjoy it here.
We at Sustainable Harvest® recently completed a restful holiday break after a very busy year. It was nice to sit back and reflect before jumping into 2016.
One of my favorite moments of 2015 was Let’s Talk Coffee® Best of Rwanda, the supply chain gathering we held in November in Kigali. The event brought together 100 smallholder women coffee farmers with the international coffee community for three days of talks, trainings, and connections. It was an unforgettable experience for everyone who attended, and I’m happy to share this wrap-up video to give you a better sense of the event. Please enjoy, and I hope you can join us at a future Let’s Talk Coffee®.
I’m excited about the excellent variety of coffee we’ll be sourcing in 2016, and one I’d like to highlight this month is from the Mzuzu Union cooperative in Malawi. Located in southeastern Africa, Malawi is a little-known coffee origin that is largely overshadowed by East Africa power producers like Ethiopia and Kenya. But it’s an origin with some great coffees. Mzuzu Union produces a unique coffee in flavor and style, with orange peel and sweet maple flavors and a buttery body. The coffee is currently available in our spot offerings—check out all of our Current Offerings here. And if you’re excited about fresh-crop coffees from Central America, Colombia, and Ethiopia that will soon be arriving, email our Trade Team at trade@sustainableharvest.com for forward booking.
Finally, as I contemplate the New Year, I have high hopes that we as an industry can make strides toward creating sustainable supply chains. The downward trend of coffee prices must come to an end—our industry simply can’t sustain a model that pays farmers less than the cost of production, especially with additional climate-change-related challenges looming. It’s my hope that we as an industry can think creatively and collaboratively about how to invest in farmers to ensure a sustainable supply of coffee from all over the world.
Have a great start to the year and I look forward to seeing you in 2016.
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