People
In some cases, a connection between grower and importer does not generate immediate impact. The connection The Coffee Quest feels like an immediate step in the right direction! Frank Massa, owner and manager of “Friends of Mother Initiative” (FMI), is for a large part in the commodity business which leaves little room for investment, let alone improvement.
Through one of our clients Branderij Luijendijk we got in touch with this organization. Thanks to SCA training and other researches, Frank Massa is improving himself and finding better methods to make high quality and consistency a core in his green coffee. He is a small to medium-large exporter producing 30 containers of Fair Trade Organic coffee, really involved in his local community.
Many researchers in the past decade have been seeing that by putting women in control of the household, families make better choices and share their choices between husband and wife. To do this it is important to get women ownership of their lots and their coffee. Herefore, FMI invests in and buys from female farmers only.
By listening to the story of Frank Massa, we realized, there is a chance of helping an organization at the beginning of big changes. Frank is transforming his company towards a specialty coffee export company. He has the skills and knowledge to improve quality, but he was still looking for the best steps to take.
Friends of Mother Initiative is a company that supports women coffee farmers by buying their cherries, providing training in sustainable farm practices, listening to their needs and support them with medical, farm and school equipment. Also, FMI supports their farmers with gas stoves with efficient energy transference so they don’t have to cook in the house on fire anymore.
The coffees by FMI we use at the moment floated between 82-83 points which takes it on the low end of specialty coffee. However, with the first investments that Massa Frank had received, he is establishing new tanks and new drying beds. As a result, we see the quality of his coffee going up every harvest.
Massa Frank has served us already with some interesting flavours and showed he is able to do some really cool coffees. The aim we have for the coming years is to find these flavours in a controlled and consistent product.
Price
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Planet
There are 3 main focus points that Massa aims to develop: 1. Financial capabilities of farmers 2. Quality 3. Improve social & environmental issues. Get some insight into the projects:
– Friends of Mother Initiative has a medical scheme for their employees in case they fall sick. They support the schools in the area with materials to keep the school running.
– Continuous training for farmers about implementing better ways of sustainable farming.
– Learning to dose organic fertilisers correctly, counteract erosion, drying out of the soil and supplying the coffee plants with the right nutrients. All while keeping the full ecosystem running.
Next step: Build a small cupping lab together!
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