In 2014 we established a green coffee social enterprise, Raw Material. Lead by Flight Coffee co-founder Matt Graylee and our good friend Miguel Fajardo, Raw Material is a dedicated coffee development export and import enterprise where 100% of the profits generated work to provide economic freedom for coffee producers.
Ameta - Raw Material - Timor Leste
Founded on the principles of Effective Altruism, Raw Material chooses to operate in parts of the world by assessing the importance, neglectedness and solvability of issues facing small holder producers.
60% of global coffee production is produced by about 12.5 million small holder families. Coffee is a commodity and as such is traded in a way where income from coffee is dictated by external factors and not in any way that is tied to the cost of production. This provides little income certainty or stability for producers and in some cases forces them to sell their coffee below the cost of production.
Washed coffee being turned on the drying beds in Timor Leste.
These issues are pervasive and perpetuate cycles of poverty for some of the most venerable coffee growing communities.
44% of the world's small holder coffee farmers live below the poverty line (by World Bank standards), and 22% live in extremely impoverished conditions.
The first major project started in Colombia in 2016 with the successful Kickstarter campaign which raised over $200,000 for the construction of a community wet mill, El Fenix, in Quindio, Colombia. Since then, Raw Material has established operations and partnerships in Rwanda, Burundi, Timor Leste and Mexico.
Ameta and Matt.
Since 2012, it has been our goal to direct as much of our demand through Raw Material supply chains as possible. Through these channels we guarantee we’re maximising the impact our buying has for the communities who grow our coffee. We recently took an important step toward achieving this with the introduction of Timor Leste from Raw Material Timor Leste into our Bomber and B2 blends.
Complementing the Colombian Risaralda Regional Blend and Rwandan Rugali, Timor Leste now makes up equal thirds of Bomber and B2. Two of our three blends are exclusively sourced through Raw Material meaning 90% of our green coffee buying is directed through maximum impact procurement channels.
Over the next month we will provide more detail on each of the origins that make up Bomber and B2 and the projects that Raw Material is working on at each origin.
Key an eye out for the RM 100% - it means 100% of this coffee is sourced directly via Raw Material.