Guatemalan Producers and Anacafé Launch New Pilot Project to Enable Direct Trade Between Farmers and Roasters

A group of Guatemalan coffee producers, in collaboration with Anacafé, have launched a pilot project to give Coffee Roasters Guild members in the US and Canada access to direct trade, microlot coffees. 

The group of Guatemalan coffee producers have teamed up with Anacafé to trial new ways to shorten the supply chain between roasters and farmers. The pilot project aims to enable farmers to obtain a higher value for their coffees while giving roasters an opportunity to obtain truly direct trade coffees from select farms in Guatemala at a lower overall cost.

The group of Guatemalan farmers and Anacafé seek to provide green coffee deliveries to coffee roasters within 3-5 business days from the time of shipment by using a courier company that will provide door-to-door service at a cost of US$1.50/lb. 

The price of the green coffee, packaging, and payment terms are to be decided between each roaster and farmer for the minimum order of 150 lbs. The farmer processes the FDA Prior Notice, while the courier company will do customs clearance and be the importer of record. The aim of this process is to facilitate the paperwork for both the roaster and farmer, making the operation more efficient and transparent for both sides.

Juan Luis Barrios, who is part of the group of Guatemalan producers working on this project, said, “Once the learnings from this pilot project are documented and incorporated into the model, we want to expand the program to roasters in Europe and Asia, and also expand it to all coffee farmers in Guatemala. We believe that this model of transparent direct trade can make a very big difference in delivering more value to farmers and roasters.”

Access to the new pilot project is available to Coffee Roasters Guild members in the US and Canada. Interested roasters may contact Mario Linares at Anacafé via email at mario.dlm@anacafe.org.