We believe that the root cause of systemic poverty in Latin America is the manner in which agricultural products have been grown, financed, and traded since the 1800’s. Small farmers—usually in remote areas—have been affected the most because they have not had access to quality education, training, financing, or distributors that sell directly to retailers or consumers. We believe this to be intentional poverty that has been created by “middlemen” that have become accustomed to manipulating the supply chain in an effort to make money at the expense of hard-working farmers. The most frustrating part of this is that they’ve been using consumers’ hard-earned money to achieve this and usually by selling at prices that are unfair to consumers. We’re working to change this! We work directly with small coffee farmers and engage them as respected partners. We help them to grow diversified organic crops that protect their environment while creating additional income for them. We also believe that consumers need to have access to products that are good for them and are priced fairly. That is why we will always seek the most efficient way to source and sell our farmers’ products, eliminating all middlemen that don’t add value, and operating a business model that creates value for our customers. We’ve been working on this since 1997 and, to be honest, it hasn’t made us too many friends in the industry, which is a good sign. The end result is delicious, healthy, quality products that consumers can purchase at prices that are fair from the producers to the consumer.
