The system works exactly the way it was designed to work…and it needs to be broken. This is the goal of a new model of coffee trade introduced by Andy and Nanelle Newbom through their company Torque Coffee.
Andy and Nanelle Newbom are life long coffee professionals who have been foundational in helping establish the standards for transparency and excellence we know today. With their iconic roastery and retail company Barefoot Coffee they helped pioneer Direct Trade, Andy was a founding member of the Barista Guild, and they both have been work in roasting / importing companies since then where they are consistently pursuing equity and systemic change for an industry who’s distribution of value is drastically lopsided.
Recently they have launched a new model of trade based the idea of what they call “Proportional Pricing” with their company Torque Coffee.
In this model they seek to give to break the system and replace it with a framework that pays the farmer a set percentage of the coffee’s retail value upfront. It really is a great idea and in today’s conversation we will get the inside scoop on how this came about, how it works, and what you can do to adopt this model in your roastery.
We discuss:
- Iterating models to address the issues
- Leaching value from farmers
- Double standards
- The Torque model: Proportional Pricing
- Starting at the ceiling
- You don’t have as many coffees as you think
- Building the system and relationships needed
- Taking the risk off the producer
- unintentional impacts on producer
- Play to pay sucks
- The practice of tracking all your costs
Links:
Instagram @torquecoffees
Related episodes:
- Sustainability Series #2 : Importing & Roasting
- 335: A Better Business Model for Coffee Farmers w/ Thaleon Tremain of Pachamama Coffee
- 328 : Relationships and Resiliency w/ Xavier Alexander of Metric Coffee
- 294 : At Origin Roasting Revolution w/ Luis Fernando, founder of Amor Perfecto!
- 288 : The Truth behind Cheap Coffee w/ Karl Weinhold
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