FLOR MORADA by Sebastian Alcantara

Producers are the heart of what we do.

Origin Coffee Lab has a simple mission as a business in the community: to impact small farmers. This mission has led us to start working directly with producers by paying premiums congruent with the quality of the coffee. We are proud to be the first company in Cajamarca to do so. This simple innovation in our direct trade model enables us to better support the community, developing relationships that have stood the test of time. At Origin Coffee Lab we believe that cup qualities are intrinsically linked with the quality of life of the small shareholder. Simply put, quality means a beautiful-tasting cup of coffee and good quality of life for the farmer. Our goal is to incentivize cup quality by linking cupping score with our price premiums. This, we hope, empowers the farmers. For Origin Coffee to deliver a meaningful impact in the community we have organized 220 growers into 17 Comités in Jaén and San Ignacio. The Solidario Program model was built exclusively for the farmers to harness the potential of the community’s women and youth. The purpose of the Comités in this unique farmer-led model is to empower farmers so they are equipped with tools to approach the very real problems encountered in the coffee lands. Every year we aim to further expand small farmers’ participation and ownership of key crop value chains. The model is structured to address four key areas: Training, Finance Access, Market Access and Data sharing. As an exporter, our promise is to provide radical transparency to the supply chain. This transparency will be chiefly embodied by the total financial visibility in everything that Origin does. Our goal is to change the nature of the conversation in coffee to how we can improve the farmers' lives, not just how much they are being paid. As Origin Coffee Lab has developed in the community, so has participation of the farmers. Participants who have been working with us for four years have developed numerous skills from long-term participation. Some of this recognized producers are consistent COE award winning top 5 since 2016.