Farm Fresh Coffee through Financial Programme

The growers behind Costa Rica’s Sustainable Coffee Initiative understand how important it is for coffee enthusiasts to experience the freshest and most taste-intense coffee available.

The movement has devised an innovative plan to deliver their coffee direct to North American customers by way of a micro-loan financial agreement, bypassing middlemen and retailers.
All clients can apparently participate and become partners in the initiative, which operates quite simply by rewarding investors with US$70 of credit to spend on next year’s coffee, in return for an upfront investment of just half the amount, US$35, in next year’s crop – a 100 per cent return.

As such, coffee farmers have the initial funds they need to support their plantations, which would otherwise not be accessible to them without facing heavy repayment terms.

The initiative is the brainchild of North American-based coffee experts Forrest Graves, Luis Alejandro Garcia and Ken Lander, the latter describing the loan system as a “heretical idea” within the world of coffee. Graves’ view is that the programme is a “quantum leap for the consumer and the farmer,” giving them a voice and eliminating the need for layers of middlemen.

Whereas farmers would have normally been subject to 24 per cent interest payments on their fertiliser requirements, within just three months of the start of the plan, coffee growers have received 132 micro-loans, enough to fertilise their land twice.

Lander added that another 150 loans and coffee purchases by the end of the year to fund the harvesting efforts, which account for a reported 40 per cent of the costs associated with coffee of production.