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In five years a million households in Western Europe have freshly roasted coffee, that is the ambitious plan of Yorick Bruins, cofounder of Wakuli coffee. His calculations are contradicted.

Robin Wechem, 11 February 2020

Last year was a dramatic year for coffee growers, says Yorick Bruins, co-founder of the coffee business Wakuli. "Despite rising demand, the selling price was below cost price. In Colombia, farmers let the coffee berries on the shrubs, because it was more expensive to harvest and sell them. Like Saudi Arabia determines oil prices, Brazil determines the price of coffee. The low real caused a drastic fall in the price of coffee. " Bruins sees coffee not as a bulk product but as a seasonal luxury product.

After years of working as a business consultant for coffee cooperatives in East Africa, the entrepreneurial spririt caught Bruins. "I saw that farmers had all sorts of plans to create additional value, but they were often part of mismatches with the market. By minimizing the distance between farmer and consumer, you create more profit for the farmer."

World market price
In the average chain of coffee there are fourteen links between farmers and consumers, in Wakuli just one. The coffee is not for sale in the supermarket or specialty store, which saves more than 40 percent on the consumer price. Farmers in this model get 22 percent of the yield, compared to 7 percent in other coffee models.

The company pays farmers an average 4.20 euros per kilo, far above the world coffee price of 1.60 euros per kilo. Whether that is enough for a living wage must be proven this year, says Bruins. "A living wage depends on the region where the coffee is grown and the variety of crops that a farmer has got."

Harry Hummels, professor of social entrepreneurship at Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ��, notes that Wakuli makes the price difference appear larger than it really is. "The price is a composed average of Robusta and Arabica coffees. Wakuli sells Arabica coffee, which is about 2.40 euros per kilo."

Pita Verweij, associate professor at the Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development from the same university, confirms. "The Colombian mild coffee is a more expensive Arabica coffee which currently costs 2.56 euros per kilo. The cheaper Robusta costs 1.34 euros per kilo. Wakuli compares with the cheaper coffee, but sells the more expensive one itself ."

Bruins refutes it. "The world price of Arabica coffee fluctuates. Last year it was 1.60 euros per kilogram, last Friday almost 2 euros. We also sell Robusta coffees, so the comparison applies to both coffee varieties."

Cups of compostable material
Verweij thinks it's Wakuli kilo price is realistic and can make a big difference for farmers. Ruerd Ruben, professor Impact Analysis at Wageningen ľ�ϸ���Ӱ��, expects coffee farmers in Congo have much more to 4.20 euros per kilo than farmers in Brazil. Even in a similar region, the differences are considerable. "In Nicaragua, a living wage is 246 dollars per month, in Brazil twice that amount."

Rubenfinds Wakuli's chart with the price structure of the coffee incomplete. "The removal of middlemen sounds nice, but the beans must be shelled and dried. Sometimes cooperatives do it themselves, sometimes middlemen. These costs are currently not in the list. It is also expensive for coffee packaging. In Tanzania imported jute bags are significant costs."

Hummels knows that there are coffee brands that pay farmers even more. “MAAS coffee pays farmers 13 euros per kilo of roasted and packaged coffee in Ethiopia. In addition, even more value lags behind in the country of origin. ”Bruins considers this a matter of comparing apples with pears. “MAAS could of course pay this amount. We probably pay more, because we count in comparisons in green, unprocessed beans."

Moreover, roasting and packaging in the country of origin will be at the expense of the quality of the coffee, he says. “The coffee is at its best ten days after roasting and then it still needs to be transported. You can't save that with shipping, and flying in is not an option for us. Moreover, roasting in the country of origin only provides added value if the distillery is in the hands of the farmers or cooperative. That is not the case with MAAS."

From this month Wakuli also sells coffee in cups made from compostable material. The cups are made from residual streams in cane sugar production and made airtight via a special process. They must be used within six months to preserve the taste of the coffee. Hummels does not see the added value of cups this way. "Grinding and processing coffee beans yourself results in less waste."

Bruins agrees. "Cups are less good for the taste, the wallet and the environment, but with the cups we can appeal to another target group, which now drinks coffee from the big brands."