NEW!: Cupping to America article in Franchise Times by Nancy Weingartner, who went with Mark and Chris to Kenya.
Mark Christenson - VP Marketing
A little over two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to witness firsthand the culmination of the fourteen month “Kenya Project” initiative to improve the lives of the farmers in the Gatanga Region of Kenya. If you have not been following this story and would like to get caught up – click here for the full details in previous blog posts by our coffee buyer Scott Kee. I joined Dunn Bros Coffee in late January of 2009 – so the wheels on this project had been set in motion long before I arrived. Given that fact, I find it very ironic that I am the one to now tell this part of the story!
I am going to share my observations from the perspective of someone who is fairly new to the industry, so a little background on me might be helpful. I have a varied past having held marketing leadership positions in food, hair care, technology and now coffee - an interesting mix to say the least. Since joining Dunn Bros Coffee one of my biggest challenges has been learning the ins and outs of what is a very complex industry. From growing, harvesting, pulping and milling, to transportation, auctions, commodity exchanges, direct trade, certifications, politics and the dreaded middlemen – one’s head can easily spin. The story of coffee is as complex and varied as the difference between a good Guatemala and a good Ethiopia. Within all of this complexity (and in many cases because of it) one constant continually rears its ugly head – that is that the industry has traditionally been marked by winners and losers. And, the losers in the story are usually the farmers. Stripping away all of the complexity however, you can find at the heart of the coffee story today, a desire by Dunn Bros Coffee and many others in the industry to achieve one thing - a market where everyone wins. We don’t want there to be losers any more; and that is what this story is all about.
Full disclosure, I was a Dunn Bros Coffee fan before joining the team. I was a fan for one simple reason - the coffee was way better than what I had found anywhere else. So when the opportunity to lead the marketing effort for a company and brand that I admired so much became available – I eagerly jumped. Prior to joining the team however, I was like most specialty coffee consumers. I knew what I liked, but never gave that much thought to where the coffee came from or how it found its way into my cup. Since joining the company, Chris Eilers(our CEO) kept telling me “we need to get you to origin.” Chris and I had many conversations about the industry and our philosophy of buying direct whenever possible. Our philosophy is simple; we live in a symbiotic relationship with coffee farmers. We need the high quality coffees that our customers demand, and the farmers that grow these coffees need to be fairly compensated for doing what it takes to produce exceptional coffees. It is the only model that is sustainable long term and ensures that we will have the supply that we need. We travel to origin countries because the more we can get to know the farmers, and the more we can buy direct, the more we can ensure that the farmers are motivated to produce high quality coffees for Dunn Bros. Buying this way is harder and more expensive, but you will taste the difference in the cup, and besides, it’s the right thing to do. In theory it makes total sense – I thought I got it. But Chris was right – I did need to get to an origin country. Because the best way to truly understand why buying direct makes a difference, is to experience it for yourself.
This long pre-ramble is simply to give you some perspective on me so you can understand the reflections I want to share with you related to this project. So here goes:
The Kenya leg of our trip was at the end of a two week run which included stops in Uganda and Ethiopia in addition to Kenya. Along the way we traveled many miles, ate many interesting foods, saw some awesome coffees and met some amazing people. We found some very high quality coffees in Uganda and Ethiopia that we hope to source directly and bring to you early in 2010 if all goes well. I will share more about those stops in a separate blog entry.
We arrived in Nairobi on Sunday October 25th and were joined by Nancy Weingartner – the Executive Editor of Franchise Times magazine. Although Nancy is the editor she still sports a mean pen and is frequently out in the field covering stories (more than she should – she admits). We were obviously pleased to have Nancy along, not only because she was a great traveling companion, but because we knew there was a great story to tell. Nancy is currently working on her piece and it should appear in the January issue of Franchise Times. We can’t wait! On Monday morning the 26th we also we met up with Simon Muriithi and John Mwangi – both principles from Gatto Estates – an export partner of Dunn Bros. The last person in our group was our driver named Patrick (more about Patrick in a moment).
Our band headed Northeast to the Gatanga region and toured four different area farms that were all associated with the Gakurari factory where the the equipment we purchased was being installed. I was struck by a couple of farmers in particular. One was a woman named Angelica Wambui. Angelica was 66 years old and had been working the farm since inheriting it from her family in 1964. Since losing her husband in 1982 she had really thrown herself into her farm and was now the 9th highest producing farm in the association (out of over 850 farmers).
Anjelica was out working the farm with her family and a few hired hands ensuring that everything was done properly. On these small farms all of the picking is done by hand. It is painstaking work, and harder than it looks. There is a trick to plucking the bean while leaving the small stem on the branch. There are also ripe beans in and among greener beans - so you have to pick out the ripe one without disturbing the others. The speed and skill that these farmers develop is amazing, and I realized quickly that I should stick to my day job.
Next we met Peris Wanjiku a 90 year old widow who also worked her farm every day. Peris had the 14th top producing farm in the association. At 90 that’s pretty impressive! So impressive in fact that at one point Chris proposed marriage.
Fully demonstrating that she still has all of her faculties,
Peris turned him down. We saw a group doing an initial sort at this farm – making sure that unripe cherries or cherries with defects were removed before the coffee was delivered to the washing station. This is another of the painstaking steps that these farmers take to ensure the quality that ultimately ends up in your cup.
After treating our group to a traditional porridge called Mukiyo, we headed off to the next stop.
After touring farms for the day I left with a great sense of the optimism of these Kenyan farmers. Disenfranchisement is very common in the coffee industry and not just in Africa. Farmers who work their farms every day and are paid mere pennies per pound for their coffees easily become discouraged. They give up on quality or they give up on coffee altogether. And who could blame them. The drive to get ahead and create a better life for ones self and ones family is universal. And the drive is alive in East Africa! Anjelica and Peris were two shining examples of farmers who get it. And as a result, they are leaders in the society who send a message to everyone else, hopefully inspiring them to join the effort to pursue quality. And others need only see how that works to begin to follow suit. Now overcoming the next issue – the washing of the coffee. And that is where the “Kenya Project” comes in.
If you were not able to read the previous blogs here is the issue in a nutshell: The Gakurari Factory is owned collectively by an association of over 850 area coffee farmers. The washing station collects the picked ripe coffee cherries from the farmers and “washes” the coffee which removes the outer covering or “cherry” exposing the bare coffee bean - which is then dried before milling and roasting. When Chris and Scott Kee arrived in the summer of 2008 as part of a tour which took them through Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania in addition Kenya, they were shocked and disappointed to see the significant disrepair of the station, especially compared to the beautiful washing stations that were seen in the other East African countries they just visited.
Scott and Chris were travelling with Josephine Ngethe from Deloitte Consulting who they had met at the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) conference in Minneapolis earlier in the year. Scott and Josephine struck up an immediate conversation about what could be done to improve the situation at the factory. Scott shared with me how he was struck by the realization that the roots of the global coffee market were similar to what he had experienced on his grandparents farm in Missouri in the 1960’s. The industry basically consists mostly of small family farmers scratching a living from as little as two acres of land. Because they are small, there is much that is out of their control (weather, commodity prices, foreign exchange, etc.) but the one thing they can control is the quality at the farm. Scott also shared with me that when he was in Kenya last summer he saw high quality coffee crops that were selling for bottom dollar prices. Because (unlike Rwanda) the equipment to properly wash the beans was unavailable. The coffee degrades without proper washing so the situation was critical. At the Gakurari Factory, there were 850 families getting rock bottom prices for coffee that could be among the highest quality specialty coffee in the world market. This was simply wrong.
Scott and Josephine decided to do some research and reconnect with ideas after returning home. During the course of his research Scott discovered that the proper equipment to upgrade the Gakurari factory cost just $26,000 dollars. Josephine discovered a pool of money set aside by the Kenyan Government for investment in just this kind of project. The funds were made available in the form of matching grants through the World Bank. The Dunn Bros Coffee leadership team discussed this project and easily made the decision to make the $26,000 investment on behalf of our system and our franchisees to benefit the farmers in this association. Part of this donation also came from you – our customers. A portion of the profits from Gatanga region coffee purchased at Dunn Bros Coffee shops also supported the project. Deloitte secured the matching funds from the World Bank and the wheels were in motion. The matching funds made it possible to not only provide the equipment, but also provide a number of very necessary infrastructure updates.
The equipment itself is a machine called an Aquapulper which is manufactured in Colombia by a company named Penagos. The Aquapulper will lower the cost of production and raise the consistency of the product. An added benefit is that the new equipment uses far less water (only 2% that of the disk pulper) and fuel, which are limited resources in Kenya. These additional benefits will lower operating costs while lessening the factory’s impact on the environment. And the specialty coffee market wins by having more, higher quality coffee available. The next step then is for buyers like Dunn Bros to buy directly from the co-ops and farmers whenever possible to ensure they get a fair price. What is a fair price? This is certainly a subjective question, but in our case it usually means well above “Fair Trade” prices. This could be two to three times what farmers are getting at market or through a simple commodity exchange. Direct buying gives us the ability to seek out the highest quality coffees and pay a fairly negotiated price that works for the farmer, for us and for you the ultimate consumer. The ultimate realization of the potential of this project will be when 850 family farmers and their workers realize a significant increase in their standard of living because they were able to be fairly paid for the quality coffee they produced. And for us, this is just the beginning. We never intended this to be a one-off project. We will be tracking all of this along with Deloitte to ensure that the investment has the intended effect. When the model is proven we will have the data needed to replicate this project in other areas so we can potentially help even more farmers while increasing the supply of high quality coffees. We will report findings in future blog postings as they become available.
After much work, the dedication ceremony for the new improved Gakurari Factory took place on Tuesday, October 27th. To say that I felt privileged to be there is a monumental understatement. Watch the ceremony in this brief video from Kenya.
After a morning tour of Thika Coffee Mills, Chris, Nancy and I arrived with John Mwangi and his father Simon from Gatto Estates. We arrived to an unbelievable scene. Nearly 200 of the farmers from the association had shown up for the ceremony. A van with a PA system had been brought in and there was a special area set up for all of the dignitaries. Music was playing from the loudspeaker and the whole farm was buzzing with excitement. As the “marketing guy” my job was to hang back and document the event with video and pictures. So, Chris, John and Simon walked up and took their seats right in the front row next to the Honorable Peter Kenneth the Regional Member of Parliament and the Assistant Minster for Planning.
The ceremony was called to order and we were treated to some wonderful dancing and singing performed by a number of the local women. Even though I had no idea what they were saying, this performance was a true highlight of the day. To see how easily they fell into the performance and to see a glimpse of this most important piece of Kenyan culture was really a treat. The entertainment was followed by a brief speech by Tirus F.K Gathungu, the Chairman of the Association. Chairman Gathungu welcomed us and provided the crowd with some interesting data related to the factory and the associated farmers. He also reinforced the point that member attitudes about coffee farming were changing and that many had begun to practice coffee farming as a business, realizing that with good practices and high yields the prices will come and money can be made.
John Mwangi and Gatto Estates were recognized for their efforts to bring the Gatanga Societies together with coffee buyers like Dunn Bros Coffee so they can realize the rewards for their focus on quality. I would be remiss if I did not recognize the significant role that Gatto Estates played in providing “feet on the ground” in Kenya as well as a wealth of logistical support for the project. John said a few words and then introduced Chris. Chris shared with the farmers the trends occurring in the United States and that the specialty coffee segment is the one that is really growing. The demand for high quality coffees will continue to grow and he encouraged the farmers to continue to focus on quality and even
work harder to elevate their game now that they have a new washing facility that will be able to ensure their quality out of the factory. Chris was followed by Peter Kenneth the Member of Parliament who said something that was music to our ears. After thanking us he said that he is beginning an effort and hopes that they can achieve upgrading of all of the other 20 factories in the society with similar equipment. We had hoped that this installation would start a domino effect and it appears that it just might.
The formal part of the ceremony concluded and finally it was the moment everyone had been waiting for. Immediately following a closing prayer everyone got up and walked down to see the Aquapulper in action. After hearing about this project for so long, I was really excited to finally see the machine in action. Quite a crowd had gathered around and at one point I wondered whether I was going to be able to see the machine at all. Thankfully one of the association leaders pulled me through the crowd and got me inside the enclosure where the machine was housed. Everyone waited with baited breath as the technician adjusted a few knobs on the service panel and pushed the buttons that made the machine come to life.
Cherries began flowing through from the collection bin above into a holding tank. These were then sucked through a tube up to the top of the machine and fed down for the pulping process to begin. In a matter of seconds I began to see the stripped fruit falling through the hopper to be collected and composted for fertilizer, and then the clean washed (“parchment”) beans began to flow out of the machine into the holding tank.
Looking at the finished coffees coming out of the new Aquapulper compared to some that had been put through the old disk pulper the night before – there was no comparison. Seeing the difference in the quality of washing and the amount of water that was saved really brought the reality of this machine home to me. The fact that by this small investment we might be able to change so many lives and create that “everyone wins” scenario was truly exciting. After the demonstration we headed out to a specially prepared meal and feasted with the factory leadership and guests on grilled goat and beef sausage. Then we thanked everyone for their incredible hospitality and said our goodbyes.
Beans from old disk pulper
Beans from aquapulper
Last week I was able to share some of the video I captured with our office staff and everyone was moved to see the impact and the excitement that our effort had made. Especially Scott, who unfortunately was not able to make the trip with us. I was very happy for him, the people of Gatanga, our franchisees and anyone associated with Dunn Bros Coffee. To say “a caring attitude” is a core value is one thing, but to live it is another and I am very proud to be working with a group where core values matter.
I know this is already really long for a blog post, but I have to share one last experience that was completely unexpected. Earlier I told you I would get back to Patrick, our driver, well here is the payoff. Being a driver is not a glamorous job. You have to deal with unbelievable traffic (if you have ever ridden in a car or tried to drive in an East African city you know what I mean) and you spend a lot of time sitting around waiting while your charges are busy doing whatever it is they do. In our case it was visiting coffee farms and the Gakurari factory. What was interesting is I noticed Patrick tagging along with us. While most drivers would stay in the van or just hang out while we did our business, Patrick walked through the coffee farms with us, picked coffee with us and even toured a dry mill with us. I also noticed that he took a more than passing interest in the Aquapulper. As it happened, Chris had forgotten his video camera in the van after Patrick dropped us off for the night after the dedication ceremony. Chris called and Patrick made a special trip to bring the camera back. When Chris went down to meet Patrick to retrieve his camera, Patrick shared that he lived in a neighboring district and that he was not just a driver but also owned some land and was in fact a small scale farmer. Over the past few years he had grown frustrated with the industry, believing he could not make money - so he had let his coffee go. After spending the last three days with us and seeing the project, he shared that there had been much discussion about the Aquapulper in his district as well, and that they were all very proud of what had been done. So over the course of the last couple of days he felt a renewed energy and purpose, and was going to go back and implement some of the things he had learned and get back into the coffee business. When Chris shared this story with me I couldn’t help but smile – giving can be so rewarding.
If you have made it this far in the story – I commend you. I am not a writer so I hope that this story has in some way inspired you the way it inspired me. But since you made it this far I want to reward you with something – and that is this: This story is not just about us – but about you as well. We can’t do it without you – and they can’t do it without us. We are all connected. So the next time you order a “French Roast” or “Full City” and sit down to enjoy your morning cup - take a look at the “Coffee of the Day” board and make note of where it came from. You just might get a small tingle knowing that somewhere thousands of miles away – you helped to make someone’s life better by simply doing something you love. And if that’s not a win – win, then I don’t know what is.
View accompanying photo album.
I had spared my comments after the trip as I was and still am in that ecstatic zone after this trip. Mark, Chris and Nancy, you were just great partners!
Looking at the impact of this particular project from outside-in and both on a micro and macro basis, I have concluded that the enthusiasm built on this good leadership, will forever live to benefit both partners.
Dunn bros travel to Africa and partnering with families who are farmers, provides both hope in sustainable development as well as economic guarantees; where the biggest beneficially is actually the coffee consumer who gets a good product for a long time produced well, and traded ethically.
Without being too analytical, I have to say that I am proud that our family had to be part of this project, not as traders or facilitators, but more so as small scale farmers who have learned a lot since we started. we sow a good seed I believe.
The next time we visit Africa, it will be to evaluate our work.
Keep it locked here!
John
Gatto Estates Coffee.
Posted by: John Gatu Mwangi | December 07, 2009 at 10:58 AM