The day started with a panel discussion that I moderated, laying out the various parts of the supply chain. Though the women in attendance grow coffee, most have little knowledge of what happens to their coffee as it moves from seed to cup. Gilbert Gatali of KZ Noir gave a presentation about the role of the washing station and the exporter, while Christy Thorns of Allegro Coffee talked about her role as a coffee buyer for a national U.S. coffee brand and the ways she looks to connect to the communities from which the company sources. Jesse Durham of Sisters Coffee shared her experience as a co-owner of a family business roasting and retailing coffee in a small town in Oregon, and Brent Garcia from Nossa Familia Coffee completed the supply chain with a discussion about his role as a barista trainer.

Following this was a panel titled “Envisioning Success,” featuring Esperance Bazavugye, leader of the Hinga Kawa Women’s Association of farmers; Jean Marie Kianey Bicamumakaba, president of the Abakundakawa cooperative; Jennifer Gallegos from Fair Trade USA; and Immy Kamarade of Dallas Investments Rwanda. Sustainable Harvest Rwanda’s Country Director, Esther Mukundane, moderated an inspiring and wide-ranging discussion about the success possible through strong partnerships.

The women then moved into focused training sessions including:

Coffee Tasting

Sustainable Harvest’s Olga Cuellar-Gomez led a tasting session of coffees from around the world. For the vast majority of the 80 female farmers in attendance, this was their first time ever tasting coffee. Olga prepared the women to experience the coffees’ flavors by first having them taste honey, local fruits, and chocolate. They then tasted  coffees from Ethiopia, Brazil, Peru, and Colombia (grown by Aurora Izquierdo, a farmer and leader of the ASOANEI coffee cooperative). I found it truly inspiring to taste coffee with these women and take in their sophisticated descriptions of what they experienced. As the women completed their day and presented to the larger group about their experiences, one after another described how exciting it was to taste the results of their labor. The local culture is one in which coffee is not typically consumed—in fact, it is often demonized through stories of coffee leading to heart attacks, sleep loss and other negative side effects. The women’s better understanding and enjoyment of coffee bodes well for the ever-improving quality in Rwanda.

Coffee Roasting and Value-Added Steps

This is a session that I developed and taught alongside Jesse from Sisters Coffee. We started it by asking the participants if they recognized parchment, green, and roasted coffee. Only a handful had ever seen roasted coffee. Despite their limited access to coffee’s supply chain beyond the washing station where they deliver cherries, nearly all of the women knew how cherry became parchment and then green coffee. With a coffee roaster on-hand, we demonstrated how to roast a batch of coffee and discussed how this value-added step is necessary in turning the seeds of a coffee cherry into a beverage. The women were enthusiastic about crunching roasted coffee beans. Every group of women we taught asked how they could roast coffee at home, so Jesse led an impromptu discussion of roasting in a pan over a flame. Because most Rwandans roast peanuts this way, they quickly grasped the concept as it pertained to roasting coffee.

Best Practices in Coffee Harvesting

When I visited the Nyamping cooperative in November and talked with the members about their yield, it was clear they weren’t producing as many cherries as desired. At this session, Boss Farijallah and Albert Nzamwita taught women how to identify ripe cherries and how to manage the harvest on their farm to increase quality. During the session recap, the women reported that they could now better identify ripe cherries and were hopeful that it would lead to quality improvements.

Organic Fertilizer

The women learned how to create their own organic fertilizer. Given the remoteness of many of these farms, having an option for homemade organic soil inputs saves money on fertilizer and provides women with access to soil nutrients during times of the year when they may not have access to conventional fertilizer.

Beekeeping and Honey Production Systems

In addition to improving the overall health of the ecosystem, honey production is an accessible way for coffee farmers to generate additional income. Master beekeeper Marie Claire Nuyirangirimana taught women the role of bees in pollination and gave them a chance to taste and learn about harvesting honey.

Mushroom Production

Kigali Farms led this presentation, introducing participants to opportunities to tap into the mushroom supply chain to increase their wealth, and also focusing on mushrooms as a healthy alternative to meat.

As we wrapped up the training sessions, the women gathered and recapped all they had learned during the past two days. It was encouraging to hear so many of the women say that they now felt like they were part of the larger global community of coffee farmers.

It was a gratifying week for all involved, and I have to recognize the amazing team that put so much work into making this event a success. With more than 160 attendees, Let’s Talk Coffee Rwanda was by far the biggest regional event we have produced, and it even rivaled the first few years of our global event. Let’s Talk Coffee is a huge undertaking, and I’m so proud to work with a team that recognizes that everyone’s hard work is integral to creating a successful event.

This morning as the members of the Nyampinga cooperative arrived at the Women’s Opportunity Center in Kayonza, I was greeted so warmly by their president, Asterie. She recalled my earlier visit, updated me on the regular visits by Sustainable Harvest’s agronomists, and shared her enthusiasm for attending Let’s Talk Coffee.

Connecting with Asterie this morning—and hearing her confidence and eagerness to grow and learn—is a perfect snapshot of the larger themes presented during today’s kickoff of Let’s Talk Coffee Rwanda.

“Global Connections: Common Experiences” was a presentation by two women with amazing stories of how coffee has made a positive impact on their lives and communities. Aurora Izquierdo, founder and president of the ASOANEI cooperative in Colombia, shared her story of growing up in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Serranía del Perijá mountain ranges of northern Colombia. This is an isolated indigenous community with a deep commitment to the environment. After completing a primary education, Aurora left her home village for Bogota, where she continued her education before returning to her home village to share what she had learned. Previously the only coffee was found in small parcels, but Aurora encouraged her community to invest in coffee production, sought the approval of the community, and blessed the plants prior to planting. From these beginnings, she is now a leader of an innovative cooperative in Colombia focused on quality and the environment. The Rwandan farmers in the audience listened and hopefully drew parallels and inspiration from Aurora’s story.

Following Aurora on stage, my friend Laetitia Mukandahiro told her story. Laetitia is one of the top cuppers in East Africa and currently manages quality control for KZNoir, one of Sustainable Harvest’s suppliers. Laetitia’s entire life has been surrounded by coffee. The daughter of a coffee farmer, she began her career in coffee working as a sorter at a washing station. In 2005 she was given the opportunity, as were her colleagues, to try cupping coffees. She finished at the top of her group of colleagues and was soon hired by a Rwandan coffee lab. Nearly overnight, she saw her income more than triple. As she found her passion, she continued developing her skills, eventually earning her Q-Grader certificate and repeatedly being promoted. Today she earns more than 30 times what she made as a sorter in a washing station and has been recognized as Rwanda’s top cupper in international competitions. Through her work in coffee she put herself through college at night, and earned a degree in economics in 2011. Her advice for LTC attendees: Have confidence and don’t stop moving forward.

I was inspired by the stories Aurora and Laetitia shared, with concrete evidence of how working in coffee has changed their lives. The impact on the women attending was palpable. Making these connections and building relationships between a Colombian coffee farmer, a Rwandan cupper, and smallholder producers from throughout Rwanda captures the spirit of Let’s Talk Coffee Rwanda’s model.

Following additional presentations by government ministers, Grace Hightower De Niro, Afshan Khan, Verna Eggleston, and Felix Hallwachs, and panels of experts presenting on diverse value chains of honey, mushrooms, and coffee, the women began their breakout sessions. It’s in the breakout sessions where the women are given a chance to work hands-on with coffee harvesting, taste coffees from around the world, learn about beekeeping and mushroom production, experience coffee roasting first-hand, and learn about organic fertilizers. These breakout sessions continue tomorrow, ensuring that each participant of Let’s Talk Coffee Rwanda experiences these trainings first hand.

The day started with a discussion of the upcoming SCAA Event in Seattle. This year, Peru has the honor of being the SCAA Portrait Country, a chance to showcase the country’s unique coffee and culture. Ben Corey-Moran of Fair Trade USA, Luis Torres of PromPeru (Peru’s national promotional body for exports), and Susan Aleman of Sustainable Harvest gav

e overviews of SCAA plans, and producer organizations gave their input on how to show the specialty coffee world what Peru—which supplies 23 percent of fair trade coffee to the U.S.—has to offer during April’s event.

Next, Sustainable Harvest’s Quality Control Manager, Dane Loraas, got down to the nitty-gritty with a presentation on strategies for packing and shipping coffee—an important but sometimes overlooked step in the maintenance of coffee quality from farm to roaster. Dane shared results from two pilot projects run by Sustainable Harvest’s logistics team. The first tested the cost and efficacy of different types of packaging for protecting coffee, and Dane shared the results and recommendations for the most economical and most efficient ways to protect coffee on the water. The other pilot tested the variation of humidity and temperature levels as containers cross the water. When containers arrive in a wintry New York after being loaded in a balmy Peru, rapid changes in temperature cause an increase in condensation, leading to wet bags of coffee. Dane recommended that producers conduct a thorough inspection of the container for rust, holes, and problems, as well as line the container with corrugated cardboard before it is loaded.

 Everyone was happily surprised when Albert Scalla of INTL FCStone was beamed in via Skype to give an overview of the C-market for coffee. INTL FCStone is a firm that specializes in commodity training, and Albert is a familiar face to many of the attendees, who have seen his very informative and succinct explanations of the coffee market at past Let’s Talk Coffees. Albert discussed the causes of the C-market’s recent volatility—including describing Brazil’s drought and a wave of investments in commodities—and recommended that the cooperative representatives protect themselves from market volatility in the coming years by taking advantage of Sustainable Harvest’s risk management tools, such as hedges (futures and options) and workshops. Even though the volatility looks as though it will work in the favor of producers in the coming years, Albert warns that it can still be an enemy if not managed properly.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of an interactive session between Sustainable Harvest’s supply team and all of the representatives of the Peruvian cooperatives they work with. The session is a crucial piece of the Relationship Coffee Model in Peru. Together, the Sustainable Harvest team and the Peruvian suppliers sit down for four hours to discuss important points of harvesting, processing, and shipping. They introduce new protocols and clarify old ones, reinforce lines of communication, and address doubts, concerns, and questions. Everyone has a voice, and the outcome is a unified, empowered supply chain that faces the 2014 harvest season with collaboration and strength, even in the face of market volatility, climate change, plant disease, and more. Everyone left the room ready to take on the upcoming year.

Last—but certainly not least when it comes to Relationship Coffee—everyone headed out into the balmy Lima night so that old and new friends could share a beer. Tomorrow, most will head back to their homes in the coffeelands of Peru (many via long, windy bus rides), but it won’t be long before they are all seeing each other again, representing Peru at the SCAA in April.

Wave PhotoFirst off we heard from Oscar Malca, a professor of international business at the Universidad del Pacifico. The Peruvian cooperatives are no strangers to business, and they know that investment in infrastructure, inputs, and innovation are important to succeed in the international coffee market. What is harder to quantify is the importance of investment in intangible things, like human resources, reputation, experience, and knowledge sharing. Professor Malca encourages Peruvian businesses like the cooperatives to consider these intangible things as important investments equal to physical investments in fertilizer, cars, or wet mills. Sharing institutional knowledge, preserving an international reputation, and avoiding employee turnover, says Professor Malca, are just as crucial to business growth and cost reduction as more tangible goods.

Following a typical Let’s Talk Coffee™ style coffee break—complete with world-class baristas and delicious espresso—the conference continued with a report on the state of long-term production and infrastructure projections in the Peruvian coffee industry. This panel focused heavily on what the government and private sector actors are doing to strengthen the Peruvian coffee industry in the aftermath of Roya, and appropriately featured Jose Muro of the Ministero de Agricultura, Lorenzo del Castillo of the Junta Nacional de Cafe, Marco Vinelli of Agroideas, and Jeronimo Bollen of Root Capital. These speakers highlighted a silver lining to the Roya crisis in Peru. As a result of the devastation of the disease, the government has started to invest in the smallholder coffee farmer once again through national initiatives called PLANCAFÉ and the Insituto Nacional de Café. As a result of these initiatives, the outlook on production and the wellbeing of Peruvian coffee is bright. Jeronimo capped off the sessions with a look at how private capital has been involved in recovery, demonstrating that Roya has inspired a much-needed cross-sector response in Peru.

In the afternoon, Sustainable Harvest’s supply chain manager, Sara Morrocchi, brought together a representative from every step of the Peruvian coffee supply chain for an examination of the planning and execution involved in the exportation of Peruvian coffee from the producer all the way to the roaster. Coffee touches a lot of hands as it makes its way from the farm to the cup, and at each step there is the possibility of a delay or inefficiency that could lead to bottlenecks, late shipments, and a loss of reputation or an endangered business relationship. How can we avoid these delays at every possible juncture? Esperanza Dionisio from Peru’s Pangoa Cooperative shared tips for fulfilling commitments to roasters: planning, she says, begins a year in advance. Pangoa has a strict system for quality control so they always know which coffee to use to create their lots in advance. They also send pre-shipment samples 2 months ahead of time, which gives them time to create another container in case of rejection, allowing them to still fulfill contracts on time. Carina Torres from Oikocredit emphasized the need for strong financial systems, so that cooperatives can receive pre-financing without hitches before the most crucial moments in their harvest. Martin Dominguez from the Nor-Andino processing plant spoke about how proper planning (their busiest months are in September, October, and November) and strict quality control (lower-quality coffee has more defects, and thus can take twice as long to process) can avoid bottlenecks at the mill. Jess Brooks from Allegro Coffee Roasters in Colorado gave important insight into a roaster’s preparation for the marketing and sale of coffee—they plan their branding and packaging 6 months in advance. The discussion gave everyone insight into the entire chain’s responsibility in understanding lead times and planning systems to foster an efficient and sustainable export market.

Interaction at Let’s Talk Coffee PeruThe first day of Let’s Talk Coffee™ Peru 2014 wrapped up with lively conversations over coffee and an air of excitement over what day 2 would bring. Check back here tomorrow as we bring you a day two update of Let’s Talk Coffee™ Peru 2014, which promises a number of exciting presentations and the finals of Peru’s first-ever national AeroPress competition.

Check out Sustainable Harvest’s Facebook Page for a full album of photos from the event.