Why does roasting specialty at origin matter? History tells us why.
Coffee’s history is based on resource extraction. In general, by the time coffee became a worldwide commodity and the third most popular drink in the world it was grown in colonies or brand-new republics located in the coffee belt. The coffee belt, between the tropics of cancer and of capricorn, is the area of the world whose climate allows for the growing of coffee.
In the case of El Salvador, a country with an extensive history of monocultures during its colonial history cotton and indigo were the main cash crops. As a young republic coffee came into the picture. I recommend those who are interested in the history of coffee in El Salvador, and agricultural history in general, read the book Coffeeland by Prof. Augustine Sedgewick. After a couple of readings of the book and a conversation I had with Professor Sedgewick I was surprised at all the things that had changed over the past 150 years in El Salvador’s coffee industry but I was not so surprised on the many things that hadn’t.
In general one could argue that for 150 years we’ve been exporting a product, green coffee, which is the least valuable product in the entire production chain. If you have a $5 coffee at Starbucks roughly 11 cents reach the country that produced the actual coffee in it. A single tree will produce on average enough cherries that after processed and roasted fill a one lb bag of coffee. A tree that needs not only land, but an entire year's worth of care and many man hours from pruning, fertilising, planting the actual tree, pest control, harvesting and so on. At current international C-Market arabica coffee prices a tree produces a little over $2 for a grower over the course of a year. Costs of production in El Salvador, when done properly, are over this amount. When cutting a lot of corners are barely under $1.80. So the profit for a year’s work, per tree this way, is 25-50 cents with some luck.
Green coffee is a product that not only needs an entire year to produce, but has low international prices. What has this done to the coffee industry in El Salvador? When prices were good in the 1970s El Salvador (despite its very small size, 21,000 km2, or roughly the size of the US State of Massachusetts) was the world’s 4th largest coffee producer with exports of over 4.5 million bags (69kg 150lb bags) of green coffee. Nowadays we’re exporting under half a million bags and are not even in the top 20. Farming and green coffee, in a small country, is quite simply not a profitable venture.
New generations of would-be coffee growers have simply stopped growing coffee, some have used the land for other uses, many have simply sold it to real estate developers. Today coffee farms are the cheapest land in the country. You can get a coffee farm in El Salvador for around $4000 USD an acre.
Many would argue that well this is reality and they should just grow whatever else or do as they have, leave the agricultural industry as a whole. I don’t think they should. Without coffee farms, which grow under the shade of trees, we’d lose what’s left of forest in El Salvador leading to erosion, hotter weather and less water retention leading to both lowland flooding and less groundwater for all uses.
The coffee forests must be saved, not only for economic reasons, but quite simply if we don’t have coffee forests in El Salvador we don’t have water in El Salvador.
So what can we do? Whenever possible export roasted coffee directly from the origin. Why? Because those $2 per tree become $20 per tree helping across all industries in El Salvador. Those $20 stay in the origin not only helping growers, but local roasteries, manufacturing industries making everything from bags to labels to cardboard boxes, to logistics, to government services funded by the taxes and so on.
By roasting at origin the value of a year's worth of work stays in the country, it doesn’t leave. There are some efforts for roasting coffee at origin in other countries, sadly owned by international investors. It’s better than the current model since more jobs are created, but at the end of the day the profits are exported.
By buying coffee roasted at origin you won’t sacrifice freshness (we can get you coffee roasted in El Salvador delivered in 4-5 days to the USA), you’ll pay a similar amount compared to a specialty roaster in your home country, and you’ll help across all industries at the origin country where those dollars matter and make a difference. You’re helping the environment, not hurting it. Coffee still has to ship from somewhere. The carbon footprint of a coffee roasted by a famous roaster in Portland, Oregon shipped to Florida is way more than the carbon footprint of a coffee roasted in El Salvador and shipped half the distance. Coffee had to get to Portland from the origin anyways, usually through an intermediary green coffee importer in Minneapolis.
Coffee roasted at origin doesn't spend months at sea and at ports. It’s literally driven an hour from the farm or mill to the roastery then picked up in a zero emissions vehicle by our DHL partners and taken to the airport through the logistics network from our roastery to your door in 4 business days. Any carbon impact of the air freight is more than offset by not clearcutting a coffee forest in order to pave it and build homes, or grow water and pesticide intensive crops like sugarcane or corn.
Coffee roasted at origin helps grow local economies and prevent migration, both from the countryside to the city or from producing countries to consuming countries. It helps build manufacturing industries, it helps create jobs and save water. It helps for growers to get recognition for their work.
As I’ve said many times before, France does not export grapes for other countries to turn into wine. They’d never do that because they know it makes zero sense to do so. Roasting outside of origin might have made sense many years ago, but it doesn't anymore. The only barriers are entry to markets. I’m not arguing that all the coffee in the world should be roasted at origin, but I’m arguing some of it being roasted at origin is a net benefit to the entire industry worldwide.
Help us break with 150 years of a broken model based on resource extraction and order coffee roasted at origin from us or from the origin of your choice.
Thank you.