Gildardo Ucué Finca Buenavista and the Coffee Farmers Collective in Colombia

The latest coffee offering to hit Craig’s Coffee is the Colombia Huila 🇨🇴, grown and processed by Gildardo Ucué on one of his lots, Buena Fincavista. Flavor notes of Rainier Cherries 🍒, Lemonade 🍋, Caramel Nougat 🍮, and a Dark Chocolate finish 🍫. This coffee was sourced from Cedro Alto, aka the Coffee Farmers Collective. It was imported by Crop to Cup.

The producer for the new Colombia Huila coffee is Gildardo Ucué, a long-time coffee producer who recently started branding and selling coffee directly from his estate in La Plata, Huila. Previously, Señor Ucué would deliver his coffee to a large processing center (often referred to as a Mill) where it would be blended with other coffees from Huila, to secure a sale and a specific price point. But a few years ago, Señor Ucué joined the Colombia Farmers Collective (CFC). The CFC was organized in 2017 by Cedro Alto, and it has allowed farmers like Señor Ucué to brand and market his coffee individually to buyers and have more control over sale price.

Gildardo Ucué giving a tour of one of his farms, Finca Los Eucaliptos.

Señor Ucué has become one of the Coffee Farmers Collective top producers for the quality and consistency of his coffee every year.

The Purpose of the Coffee Farmers Collective

Being in the CFC means that farmers share resources so that all members can operate independently and enjoy the same efficiency as the large estate growers and international traders. The CFC does not brand itself as an association or a cooperative. In fact, they partner with those types of local organizations that provide day-to-day support for the farmers that make up the CFC. The function of the CFC lies in the logistics and commerce between the farm gate and the roaster in another part of the world.

Basically each producer that is a member of the CFC sends samples of each harvest or microlot they produce to the Cedro Alto cupping lab. Cedro Alto cups (or tastes) everything that arrives, provides detailed feedback, and if cup quality reaches the agree-upon level, the collective pre-finances the producer, effectively purchasing their parchment coffee at the price that we feel roasters would pay for it, minus costs. It is then the collective's responsibility to mill, export, import, warehouse, market, and sell it to a roaster, as the farmer has already been paid. The CFC also provides access and resources to mills, processing stations, and exporters.

Producers in the CFC do not have any formal commitment to the CFC. It is available as a resource to farmers that feel their product has the potential to be sold as a microlot at specialty prices. They are free to market and sell their coffee to other organizations, which many do.

The CFC’s main priority is to assume all financial risk on behalf of the members, who typically are not financially equipped to weather loss or spoilage. All risk, financing, and the cost of shared services are covered by the collective centrally and built into a margin the organization earns on export and direct-to-roaster sales.

Why the CFC is Beneficial for its Producers

You’ve most likely heard the term “direct trade” or “ethical trade".” But those terms are pretty much unrealistic these days because it remains impossible for small farmers to sell to roasters. The CFC bridges these gaps between small specialty producers, and small to medium scale roasters. Prior to small specialty producers exclusively marketing and selling their coffee, the only other option was to sell to a large importer based on physical quality and blended with everything else produced in the area. The best cup quality was mixed with the worst and everything in between, often resulting in a mediocre blend that was for the New York C-price, maybe probably a few cents/lb over. (The C-Price is the global exchange in which the world’s Arabica coffee is bought and sold. It’s currently at $2.24 per lb, the highest it’s been ever… which is a good thing! But it will most like drop down below $2. For reference, most of the I buy is $4+ per lb.)

Smallholders are largely unable to access quality and transparency premiums enjoyed by larger coffee farms due to scale. Long story short, producers who want to sell their coffee internationally need an export entity and are required to manage a plethora of documents and administrative requirements. They also need enough coffee to fill up containers, which is unrealistic for farmers who produce only a few bags. (For reference, a container can hold up to 250 bags.) And most importantly, producers need the financial wherewithal to be able not get paid until their product reaches the consumption country and sold, on average taking 6 to 7 months. It would make no sense for a farm producing 30 bags a year to have all of this, and no small farmer in the areas we work has access to the credit necessary to make it work. However, between 60 farms each producing 30 bags a year, it's viable. That’s exactly what the Collective does.

The CFC allows the producers of Cedro Alto to pool resources and operate with nearly the same level of efficiency as the large exporters. The CFC prides itself on it’s standout members producing delicious coffees, and uses it’s resources to export this amazing coffee to the United States for Craig’s Coffee to roast!

Cedro Alto and Coffee Farmers Collective founder Karl Weinhold.

Weinhold is also the author of Cheap Coffee, a book about the unknown discrepancies in the Colombian coffee marketplace.

What’s Next for the CFC?

There are now more than 30 members that are part of the CFC. And with each new member comes additional resources and experience; new members allow the CFC more negotiating power because of the increased volume of coffee that they’re able to sell. This in turn provides more access to the international marketplace, and resources to improve the quality of coffee grown.

The CFC will continue to operate in Colombia and expand upon it’s network of producers and exporters it works with. Owner and founder Karl Wienhold is actively involved with the organization and most recently published a book, Cheap Coffee, which explores the coffee marketplace, why it’s so cheap compared to other commodities, and where it’s headed.

In 2019, I actually wrote an article for Daily Coffee News about Karl and his operation in Colombia. You can read it here.

You can also learn more about Karl and the amazing producers he works with on Cedro Alto’s website.