CLEARPATH COFFEE (SUNTERRA S.A.S.)

Colombian Specialty Coffee Co-Exporters. We're working with famous producers as Rodrigo Sanchez, Elkin Guzman, Claudia Samboni, Julio Madrid, Luis Jose Valdes, Paula Concha, etc.

El Puente is a social impact project that started on 2018 with the idea of solving 3 main problems small producers face when processing coffee for the specialty coffee industry: Lack of post harvesting infrastructure: Its common for small producers with farms between 1 to 5 hectares to have problems with their processing capacity during the harvest season. They do not have enough drying and storage space to handle all of their production. This leads to cup defects such as mold and phenols. It also leads the producer to sell his coffee without finishing drying for what they receive a discount in price that can go up to 50%. Lack of financial resources: Harvest season is a cash demanding time; producers need to pay pickers which is the most expensive labor in coffee farming. They also need to wait 25 to 30 days for the coffee to be dry in order to be able to sell it at a good price. This leads to the need of finding loans that add to the cost or again the need to sell the coffee wet losing some of its value. The risk of trying new processing methods that are popular with specialty coffee clients. Extended fermentations, naturals, honeys, etc are new practices that became popular in the last few years, but they are not what producers in Colombia are used to. We have a strong tradition of washed process with more than 100 years of history. Learning to make this fermentations and different processes involves a risk of damaging a few batches, something that small producers can’t afford. Selling these coffees also requires more time and the right market access. El Puente solves these problems by buying freshly harvested cherries from the allied producers, paying against delivery a price equivalent of that of dry coffee, taking the risk of processing and the task of selling those coffees to the right clients. Kind of coffees produced and sold: Natural process. Honey processed. Washed coffees*. El Puente doesn’t process big volumes of washed coffees because it doesn’t have the right water treatment plant to clean the water needed for this king of process. But it does offer market access for coffee processed by allied producers. This allows producers to have the option of selling the coffee that do process at their farms and get a good price for it. Social and environmental impact: Producers get paid against delivery of the cherries and equivalent of the days market price for dry coffee. This saves them, all the time and resources they otherwise would use to depulp, ferment, wash and dry that coffee. We estimate and average of 12% margin on the sale of the cherry VS doing all the processing and selling to local market at the days price. Producers have more time and cashflow to focus on the harvesting and processing of the coffee they do have the infrastructure and capacity to do at their farms. In this way they have a better chance of achieving high quality coffees. El Puente offers market access for the high-quality coffee’s producers process at their farms. By focusing on natural and honey processes El Puente uses 80% less water than it would be used to process these coffees by the traditional washed method. (For 1 kg of a traditionally washed process coffee 10Lts of water are used).

• 26 sales on Algrano
• 2 Avg. orders per roaster
• 18 Roaster relationships
• Seller relationships with Roasters in